Mr R Hempsell v Cadent Gas Limited — 2021

The claimant presented his original ET1 on 5 July 2020 alleging disability discrimination, sex discrimination, detrimental treatment for whistleblowing/health and safety, unauthorised deductions from wages, and failure to pay holiday pay. After his dismissal on 7 June 2021, he applied for interim relief on 9 June 2021 on the basis that he had been dismissed for raising health and safety concerns and making a protected disclosure, but he had not presented a new ET1 claiming unfair dismissal at that time.

The tribunal held that interim relief under section 128(1) Employment Rights Act 1996 is only available where an employee presents a complaint of unfair dismissal, and that the application must be made within seven days of the effective date of termination. It found that it had no jurisdiction to extend that time limit, save possibly in circumstances of deliberate employer fraud, which were not alleged. The claimant accepted that he had not presented an unfair dismissal claim when he made the interim relief application, although he later submitted a new ET1 on 17 June 2021.

The judge rejected the submission that references to unfair dismissal in correspondence or a proposed amendment to the existing ET1 were enough. Any amendment application was not set out with sufficient detail and, in any event, had not been determined within the seven-day limit. The fact that the dismissal related to matters already pleaded did not remove the requirement for a valid unfair dismissal claim to have been presented.

On reconsideration under rules 70 to 72 of the Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2013, the tribunal held that there was no reasonable prospect of the original decision being varied or revoked and that no special circumstances justified reopening it in the interests of justice. The application for reconsideration was therefore refused.