Did not attend and was not represented For the v Network Rail — 2019

This was a preliminary hearing on 26 September 2019 before Employment Judge Johnson. The claimant did not attend and was not represented. The tribunal proceeded in his absence because no explanation had been provided, and the respondent was present and able to make submissions. The respondent sought strike out of the race discrimination and section 103A dismissal claims, and rejection of the claims against Mrs Smith and Mr Bilous because the ET1 did not contain valid Early Conciliation certificate numbers for those respondents.

The tribunal rejected the claims against the second and third respondents under Rule 12(1)(c) and Rule 12(2) because valid Early Conciliation certificate numbers were not provided when the ET1 was presented on 29 January 2018. The tribunal held that later certificates dated 8 October 2018 could not cure that defect, relying on E.ON Control Solutions Ltd v Mr Simon Caspall.

The tribunal also found that the claimant had been ordered to provide further information about the discrimination complaints and the section 103A dismissal claim by 19 October 2018. His later document of 23 October 2018 was late and was not sufficiently precise or detailed to identify the issues the respondent had to meet. On that basis, the race discrimination claim and the unfair dismissal claim were struck out. The reasons also refer to victimisation among the complaints said to be caught by the strike-out order, although the formal disposal paragraph does not list it separately.

The judgment noted separate breach of contract, wages and Working Time Regulations annual leave claims, but said those had not been specifically considered at the earlier case management hearing. Because the claimant did not attend and gave no explanation, the tribunal directed that a strike-out warning letter be sent in relation to those claims because he did not appear to be actively pursuing them. No monetary award was made.