No attendance For the v Respondent — 2019

The claimant presented a home-made ET1 received on 13 August 2018. She ticked race discrimination and arrears of pay, and the tribunal recorded that the discrimination complaint was narrowly focused on an identity check carried out when she was interviewed and later employed by the respondent. She said she was asked for passport and identity documents, and alleged that two white English employees, Alex Dryball and Andrew Hancock, were not asked to do the same.

The hearing on 13 December 2018 had originally been listed as a preliminary hearing and was converted to also deal with the respondent's strike-out application. Neither the claimant nor her representative attended. The tribunal found they had notice of the relisted 10 am hearing and of the strike-out application, and that they had had a reasonable opportunity to make representations for the purposes of Rule 37(2).

Applying the principles referred to in Silape v Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation and Neckles v National Westminster Bank, the tribunal said strike out without oral evidence is rare in discrimination cases, but held this was one of the very clearest cases. It found the claimant's account was conclusively disproved, and totally and inexplicably inconsistent with documentary evidence in the bundle.

In particular, the tribunal accepted the respondent's evidence that Alex Dryball and Andrew Hancock had been asked to produce passports and had done so. It also referred to a Skype telephone conversation between the claimant and Ray Allwork, the respondent's Sales Manager, as further documentary material contradicting the claimant's assertions. On that basis the race discrimination claim was struck out as having no reasonable prospect of success.

As to the arrears of pay issue, the tribunal said it was not sure that such a claim existed in light of the wording of the ET1. However, if it did, it also had no reasonable prospect of success and was struck out. The tribunal then dismissed the claims following strike out. No substantive remedy was awarded, and a separate hearing was listed for costs and/or wasted costs on 15 April 2019.