No appearance For the v Mitchells & Butler plc — 2022

The claimant presented the claim on 13 March 2022 without an ACAS Early Conciliation certificate. The tribunal recorded that the form referred to unfair dismissal, disability discrimination, arrears of pay, statutory sick pay, bullying, discrimination, whistleblowing, and verbal sexual assault. It also noted that the form appeared to raise potential automatic unfair dismissal issues under sections 100 and 103A of the Employment Rights Act 1996.

The tribunal found that the discrimination complaints and the unlawful deduction of wages complaint were relevant proceedings for the purposes of section 18A of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996 and were not covered by any exemption. Because the claimant had not completed Early Conciliation, the tribunal held it had no jurisdiction to hear those claims and struck them out. It relied on rule 12(2) of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013 and referred to EON Control Solutions v Caspall on the tribunal's power to reject a claim when jurisdictional defects are identified.

Although the claim form ticked a box indicating that an application for interim relief was included, the tribunal found that no such application had in fact been made, and no supporting documentation was provided. On that basis, the unfair dismissal claim also required Early Conciliation. The tribunal therefore held it had no jurisdiction to hear that claim either and struck the claim out in its entirety.