Mr O Okanlawon v Optimum Group Services Limited — 2020

The matter came before Employment Judge Gumbiti-Zimuto at Reading on 19 February 2020 as a preliminary hearing. The tribunal recorded that it had listed the case to consider whether Mr O Okanlawon's employment transferred to Optimum Group Services Limited in December 2017 under regulation 4 of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006, and, if it had, whether the claimant's direct race discrimination complaint had been presented in time under section 123 of the Equality Act 2010.

The claimant did not attend and was not represented. The reasons state that notice of the hearing had been sent to the email address the claimant had been using to communicate with the tribunal, that staff had tried to contact him the day before the hearing, and that he made no contact to explain his absence. Applying rule 47 of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013, the tribunal dismissed the claim. No findings were made on the TUPE transfer issue, the limitation question, or the substantive merits of the race discrimination complaint, and no remedy was awarded.