Mrs R Zaveri v British Airways plc RECORD OF A PRELIMINARY HEARING — 2025

At the public preliminary hearing on 28 February 2025, Employment Judge Anderson considered the respondent's application to strike out the claim under Rule 38(1)(b) of the Employment Tribunal Procedure Rules 2024. The respondent relied on three themes: the content and tone of emails sent to its solicitors and direct contact with British Airways, refusal to engage with solicitors which it said placed the hearing date at risk, and breaches of orders together with an asserted plan to call about 50 witnesses.

The tribunal accepted that the claimant's emails to the respondent's solicitors and direct contact with BA had been unreasonable, and that there had been breaches of orders and responsibility for the lack of an agreed bundle lay with the claimant. The judge also reminded the claimant that she should correspond and cooperate appropriately with Weightmans, the respondent's solicitors, and that the hearing would require active case management because the bundle was nearly 1000 pages and the case was listed for seven days.

Applying the wording of Rule 38 and the overriding objective, and referring to Blockbuster Entertainment Limited v James [2006] IRLR 630, the tribunal held that strike out was not justified at that stage because a fair trial remained possible if the orders made that day were complied with. The judge also dealt with specific disclosure, noting that any such application would have to be necessary for a fair disposal of the proceedings and that broad requests would not meet that test. The strike out application was refused, but the claimant was warned that future non-compliance could lead to strike out.