Mr G Negara v Inwork Ltd — 2023

The claimant presented a claim for unauthorised deductions on 30 December 2022. The respondent defended the claim and disputed the claimant's employment status. A final hearing was listed for 22 May 2023, and before that hearing the respondent applied by email on 16 May 2023 to strike out the claim for non-compliance with Tribunal rules and orders, for not actively pursuing the claim, and because a fair hearing was said to be no longer possible. The respondent also relied on the claimant's non-attendance at the hearing.

The tribunal accepted that there had been some failure to comply with its orders. It recorded that, even if documents had been uploaded via a link on 12 April 2023, the claimant had not complied with orders to provide a list and exchange documents by 20 March 2023 or to provide a written statement by 17 April 2023. The claimant did not attend the hearing, but his lay representative attended and said the claimant was in hospital because of a medical emergency, with medical evidence to follow. The tribunal treated a medical emergency as exceptional circumstances.

The tribunal concluded that striking the claim out would be disproportionate under Rules 37(1)(c), 37(1)(d) and 37(1)(e), noting that strike out is a draconian power because it ends the claim without a merits determination. It held that the claim was still being pursued because the claimant's representative attended the hearing, and it refused the respondent's application to strike out the claim. The judgment also states that Rule 47 was not satisfied because the representative attended on the claimant's behalf.