Mr E Altamirano v Cherwell Boathouse Limited — 2020

The tribunal heard the matter remotely by audio on 5 May 2020. The claimant did not attend, but the judge took account of his further written representations, together with the ET1 and ET3. Earlier, Employment Judge Gumbiti-Zimuto had indicated under rule 27(1) that the unfair dismissal claim appeared to have no reasonable prospects because the claimant lacked sufficient length of service.

Employment Judge Anstis found it was not in dispute that Mr Altamirano had worked for Cherwell Boathouse Limited for less than two weeks. On that basis, he did not have the two years' service normally needed to bring an unfair dismissal claim. The judge considered whether the claim might fall within one of the special categories of unfair dismissal claim that do not require two years' service, but found nothing in the claimant's representations to suggest that it did.

The unfair dismissal claim was therefore dismissed. The judge stated that this did not affect the remainder of the claimant's claim, and separate directions were made in respect of that part of the case.