Ms Shelley White v ML Ventures Limited — 2020

Ms White was employed by ML Ventures Limited from 25 February 2020 to 17 June 2020 and was dismissed on 17 June 2020 with one week’s notice. The judgment records that she did not work during the notice week and was not paid for that period. In the ET1, the only matter unambiguously pleaded was wrongful dismissal for unpaid notice pay, although there was a brief reference in the narrative to a belief that an assistant manager was homophobic, which the tribunal said made it possible she intended to raise a sexual orientation discrimination claim, but this was not clear.

At the hearing on 23 November 2020, Ms White did not attend. The tribunal clerk telephoned her and she said she did not intend to attend, giving no reason. The respondent’s solicitor had also emailed and spoken to her shortly beforehand, but the claimant did not reply substantively, did not file a schedule of loss, and did not submit an agenda for the hearing.

Applying Rule 37(1)(b), (c) and (d) and Rule 47, the Employment Judge considered alternatives including proceeding in her absence, an unless order, or a further case management hearing. The judge concluded that the issues could not be identified without the claimant’s participation, that a further listing would be disproportionate given the apparent scope of the case, and that the proportionate course was to strike out the claimant’s claims. The final hearing listed for 10 and 11 June 2021 was vacated.