Mrs D Schwartzel v GMB Union — 2020

Employment Judge Ord, sitting alone at Cambridge on 3 January 2020, held that the claim form presented in these proceedings had to be rejected under rule 10 of the Employment Tribunal Rules because it did not contain an accurate early conciliation certificate number. The claimant had relied on certificate number R336401/18/55, which the tribunal found related to XPO Logistics, not GMB, so the requirement for an accurate number was not met.

The judge relied on Sterling v United Learning Trust and E.ON Control Solutions v Caspall in concluding that the Tribunal had no discretion to treat the incorrect early conciliation number as a minor error. The claimant's argument that a later early conciliation certificate dated 1 July 2019 had cured the defect was rejected because the claim form had already been rejected and there was no power to carry out early conciliation retrospectively after proceedings had been instituted. No substantive unfair dismissal, disability discrimination, or breach of contract claim was determined on the merits.

The respondent's application for costs did not succeed. The judge recorded that, because the claim form had been rejected, there was no claim in respect of which a costs order could be made. In any event, even if the costs rules applied, the judge was satisfied that the case lacked reasonable prospects only because of a procedural defect that the claimant, as a litigant in person, had failed to appreciate, and it would not have been appropriate to order costs against her.