DNA For the v Mr Forrester, Solicitor — 2019

Mr C Eaves brought two ET1 claims, one against Darley Limited and one against Mr Stewart Hughes. The first was treated as a claim of trade union related detriment under s.146 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, based on a deduction of one hour's pay after he and two colleagues held an unofficial trade union meeting during working hours on 26 July 2018. The second claim was against Mr Hughes personally and ticked age discrimination. Mr Eaves did not attend the preliminary hearing.

On the first claim, the judge noted that the claimant had not started work until an hour after his shift began and that there was no facilities agreement covering the meeting in working time. The tribunal concluded that the deduction was linked to the claimant being absent from work for that hour, rather than to any proscribed trade-union reason under s.146. The judgment also said that time-limit compliance was questionable, but did not finally determine that issue separately. The claim was struck out because it had no reasonable prospects of success.

On the second claim, the tribunal held that there had been no early conciliation in respect of proceedings against Mr Hughes, so the claim should have been rejected and, in any event, could be struck out under rule 37(1)(a). The judge referred to Chard and said the earlier ACAS certificate naming Darley did not assist because the respondent and cause of action were different. Both claims were therefore struck out and no remedy was awarded.