Mr Deshan Mendis v Mr Naushad Hameed — 2024

The tribunal struck out the claim in its entirety. It held that the claimant had made complaints of unfair dismissal, unpaid wages and breach of contract, but had not gone through ACAS early conciliation. The claimant had ticked the ET1 box saying ACAS did not have power to conciliate on some or all of the claim, but the tribunal found that was wrong on the facts of this case, so he was required to obtain a conciliation certificate before presenting the claim.

The tribunal also said that, had a conciliation certificate been obtained, the unfair dismissal and breach of contract complaints would in any event have been struck out because the claimant was not an employee of the respondent. On that basis the unfair dismissal claim could not succeed, and the claimant could not rely on the extension of jurisdiction order to bring a breach of contract claim connected with employment. The tribunal noted that the claimant said he was self-employed and was seeking payment of invoices submitted to Aero Travel Extras Limited, which was not a party to the proceedings.

The tribunal further observed that all of the claimant's claims were brought outside the time limit for presenting proceedings in the employment tribunal. It said that, on the basis understood from the papers, the claims would likely also have been struck out because it was reasonably practicable for the claimant to present them in time.