Mr J Boughton v James Cooke, CSL Fleet Heard: Remotely (by video link) — 2021

The claimant, Mr J Boughton, brought claims for unfair dismissal, breach of contract for non-payment of notice pay, unauthorised deduction of wages, failure to pay accrued holiday pay, and failure to pay a statutory redundancy payment. The hearing took place remotely on 6 August 2021 before Employment Judge S Shore. The respondent did not appear, and the claimant was not present either; his partner, Ms L Capel, attended briefly and explained that he was at work and had no telephone signal to join.

The tribunal found that the claimant had known about the hearing date for nearly a year and had received the notice when the hearing was converted to video. He chose to go to work and thought he might be able to ring in from work. The judge refused an adjournment, finding that there was no good reason for his absence and no indication that he would be available later that day. The tribunal also took account of the wider delay to other cases if the hearing were postponed.

Applying rule 47 of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure, the tribunal dismissed all of the claimant's claims because of his failure to attend the hearing. No findings on the underlying merits of the dismissal, wages, holiday pay, notice pay, or redundancy pay claims were made, and no remedy was awarded.