Mrs T Parmiter v Business Launch Limited — 2024

By a claim form dated 6 February 2024, Mrs T Parmiter alleged unfair dismissal and sex discrimination against Business Launch Limited, trading as Wicked Uncle. The tribunal noted that ACAS early conciliation had started on 4 January 2024 and a certificate issued on 1 February 2024, so the claim was in time. The claimant did not attend the case management hearing listed for 29 July 2024, despite notice being served to the contact details on the claim form, and the tribunal's attempts to contact her by telephone and email were unsuccessful.

The tribunal had sent case management directions on 10 June 2024 leading to a final hearing listed for 28 and 29 October 2024, but the claimant had not complied with those directions, had not provided details of the evidence she would rely on, and had not responded to the respondent's agenda about the correct respondent name. In those circumstances, and because the claim was not clearly particularised, the tribunal concluded that it could not continue in her absence and dismissed the claim under rule 47 of the Employment Tribunal Procedure Rules.

In its reasons, the tribunal also recorded that the unfair dismissal claim was not supported on the ET1 because the claimant had been employed from 1 August 2022 until 19 December 2023 and had therefore not completed the two-year qualifying period in s.108(1) Employment Rights Act 1996. It further noted that the ET1 did not show a basis for automatically unfair dismissal, and that the sex discrimination allegation was not detailed beyond a reference to a list of instances in the claimant's diary that had not been disclosed.