No attendance For the v Guy Hollibon (solicitor) — 2022

The claimant, Mr Kyle Parris-Scantlebury, had been employed by British Airways plc from 28 November 2016 to 20 January 2022 as a ground operations lead. He presented claims for unfair dismissal and race discrimination on 19 May 2022. The tribunal had already made case management orders requiring a schedule of loss, disclosure, and particularisation of the discrimination case, and the judge noted that the discrimination claim had remained unclear despite those directions.

The claimant did not comply with the orders. The respondent sent emails pointing out the non-compliance and the claimant did not respond to the first two. He replied to a later email by referring to information already provided to ACAS, but the respondent said that communications through ACAS were without prejudice and asked him to comply directly with the tribunal orders. The claimant also did not respond to the tribunal's strike-out warning letter dated 18 December 2022, which told him to explain why the claim should not be struck out and to confirm compliance with the outstanding orders.

The claimant did not attend the telephone hearing on 12 January 2023. He had emailed the afternoon before saying he could not attend because of work responsibilities and asking for a later date, but Employment Judge Tobin refused the postponement application. The judge found that the claimant was aware of the orders and warning letter, had been given a reasonable opportunity to make representations, and had not provided an adequate explanation for his failure to comply or attend.

Applying Rule 37, the tribunal struck out the whole claim for failure to comply with Tribunal orders. The judge said the claimant's conduct of the case was unreasonable and that the claim had not been actively pursued, but the strike-out was made on the non-compliance ground after taking the overall conduct of the case into account. No remedy was awarded.