Mr T Thomas v Woods Coaches Limited — 2022

This was a preliminary hearing at which the claimant did not attend. The tribunal had made enquiries by email and telephone and decided to proceed in the claimant's absence under Rule 47. It dealt only with the jurisdictional/time-limit issues identified for the hearing; the separate sex discrimination/harassment complaints were not determined at this hearing and separate orders were made in relation to them.

On ordinary unfair dismissal, the tribunal found that Mr Thomas had been employed from 1 February 2019 and that the effective date of termination was 11 January 2021. It rejected any argument that the date should be treated as 24 January 2021 because of the appeal, and said that even allowing for a one-week notice extension to 18 January 2021, he still had less than two years' continuous employment. The tribunal therefore held that it had no jurisdiction over the section 94/98 unfair dismissal claim and struck it out under Rule 37.

On automatic unfair dismissal for protected disclosure, the tribunal held that the claim was presented out of time. It considered the effect of early conciliation under section 207B ERA 1996 and concluded that the relevant time limit expired on 8 May 2021. It also found that, even if the claimant's appeal had concluded on 16 February 2021, the claim would still have been out of time when presented on 22 June 2021.

The tribunal found no evidence that it was not reasonably practicable to present the whistleblowing claim within the time limit. It noted that the claimant had not attended to give evidence or submissions on the point, and that there was nothing in the papers to explain the delay. It therefore concluded that the complaint under section 103A ERA 1996 was also struck out under Rule 37.