Mr H Norwood v Ashfield Effluent Services Limited — 2021

The tribunal struck out Mr H Norwood's claims of unfair dismissal, disability discrimination and breach of contract. The procedural history recorded that a telephone preliminary hearing listed for 22 December 2020 was missed by the Claimant's representative, Mr Grant Egan, and an order was made that the claims would be struck out unless a satisfactory explanation for the non-attendance was provided by 7 January 2021. Employment Judge Britton accepted Mr Egan's first explanation and arranged a further telephone preliminary hearing for 25 February 2021.

Mr Egan did not attend the second preliminary hearing either. The tribunal then made an unless order requiring both a reasonable explanation for that non-attendance by 4 March 2021 and further and better particulars of claim by 11 March 2021. Although Mr Egan apologised and said he had diarised the hearing for 25 March instead of 25 February, Employment Judge Butler did not accept that explanation, noting a pattern of missed telephone hearings in this and other claims against the same Respondent.

The tribunal found that, even if the explanation had been accepted, the Claimant still had not complied with the second part of the unless order because the ordered particulars were not provided. The judgment therefore struck out all three claims and did not determine the merits. It recorded that the Respondent had been put to inconvenience and expense, but no costs order was made on this occasion because a further hearing would have been needed to deal with any representations from Mr Egan.