Did not attend and was not represented For the v Ms T Hassan, Solicitor — 2023

The Claimant presented a single claim form on 21 December 2022. He described the matter as unfair dismissal from his role as Access Resources Integrated Services Support Officer and also referred to how his hospital letter had been made public on computer access and that this was “in regards to Data Protection”. The Respondent admitted that the Claimant had been dismissed on the stated ground of redundancy.

A private preliminary hearing was held on 9 July 2023 before Employment Judge Hunt, when the Claimant did not attend. Judge Hunt recorded that the unfair dismissal claim had been validly and in time presented, but that the Claimant had also made a complaint about breach of data protection legislation in relation to medical records. The Tribunal had already alerted him that it did not have jurisdiction to consider the data protection complaint. Judge Hunt did not strike the claim out at that stage because the nature of the claim remained unclear, and instead ordered the Claimant to confirm by 4pm on 28 July 2023 whether he wished to pursue the unfair dismissal claim and, if necessary, whether he wanted the hearing to proceed by telephone or in person.

No communication was received from the Claimant by the Tribunal or the Respondent by the deadline. At the hearing on 11 August 2023, Employment Judge M Ord noted an email said to have been received from the Claimant that morning, but the earlier direction had not been complied with. The Tribunal held that the data protection complaint was outside its jurisdiction and struck it out for want of jurisdiction. It also found that the Claimant had failed to actively pursue the unfair dismissal complaint and had not complied with the Tribunal's directions, and for those reasons the unfair dismissal claim was dismissed.