Ms G Hughes v Heheals Pharmaceutical Services Ltd — 2022

Ms Hughes brought a claim described in the judgment as unfair (constructive) dismissal against Heheals Pharmaceutical Services Ltd. The tribunal recorded repeated case management directions, a strike-out warning, and the claimant's email saying she had difficulty opening tribunal emails and had recently suffered a bereavement. The final hearing was converted from 26 April 2022 to 22 July 2022, and the tribunal sent notice of that date to the parties' email addresses, which had been used throughout the case.

Neither party attended the final hearing on 22 July 2022. The tribunal clerk contacted the claimant, who said she had not known about the hearing and wanted the case to continue; she also asked for future correspondence by post. The tribunal considered the information available under Rule 47 and the guidance in Roberts v Skelmersdale College [2004] IRLR 69, and noted the absence of any statements, bundle, agreed list of issues, or substantive evidence from either side. The tribunal also observed that, if the matter were treated as a constructive dismissal claim, the claimant would have to prove a repudiatory breach of contract and that she resigned in response to it.

The tribunal was not persuaded that either party had been unaware of the fixed hearing date. It accepted that the claimant had suffered a family bereavement, but noted that she had not made further contact with the tribunal after April 2022 apart from sending a handwritten schedule of loss in June 2022. Having regard to the history of non-compliance, the absence of attendance, and the lack of evidence needed to evaluate the claim, the tribunal decided not to postpone or adjourn the hearing. It dismissed the claim under Rule 47 because the claimant had not attended and was not represented at the final hearing.