In Attendance (Represented by Mr Michael Loizou) v Respondent — 2023

At the public preliminary hearing on 28 September 2023, Employment Judge Bansal sat alone and considered whether the claimant, a pastry chef employed by Damask Catering Limited from 13 February 2020 on a zero-hours contract, had been dismissed at a meeting on 3 May 2022. The tribunal heard oral evidence from the claimant and from Mr Ali Bidarbakht. It found the claimant was not a credible witness, whereas Mr Bidarbakht was credible, consistent and candid.

The tribunal accepted that the claimant had been absent with back pain, had shown Mr Bidarbakht a fit note at the 3 May meeting, and had been told she could not return to work while signed off sick. It did not accept that Mr Bidarbakht told her she was dismissed or gave her reason to think her employment had ended. The tribunal found she was mistaken in believing she had been dismissed, had no reasonable grounds for that belief, and would have been issued a P45 if she had in fact been dismissed.

Because the tribunal found that no dismissal occurred and that the claimant remained an employee, it struck out the complaints of unfair dismissal, dismissal on the grounds of disability, harassment on the grounds of disability, redundancy pay, notice pay and holiday pay for lack of jurisdiction. The judgment also records that the claimant had sent texts on 7, 12 and 22 May 2022 seeking confirmation of what had happened, but the tribunal treated those as inconsistent with a genuine dismissal having taken place. A further private preliminary hearing was listed for 27 October 2023 to clarify the remaining direct discrimination complaints and make case management orders for the final hearing.