In person For the v Ms N Anaman, Solicitor — 2018

Mr R Etheridge presented a claim on 16 October 2018 for an unlawful deduction from wages in respect of one day’s pay. After case-management directions required him to provide a remedy statement and supporting documents, the tribunal made an unless order on 18 March 2019 requiring that material by 8 April 2019, failing which the claim would be dismissed. The claimant then sent a remedy statement asking Royal Mail to consider early voluntary redundancy, which the tribunal found was not the information required by the order, and it was served on the respondent one day late.

On the application to set aside the dismissal under Rule 38(2), Employment Judge Henry applied the interests of justice approach discussed in Thind v Salvesen Logistics and Morgan Motor Company Ltd v Morgan UK EAT/0128/154/DM. The judge accepted that the claimant, who was a litigant in person, had made a genuine mistake and was sincere in believing he had complied with the order. The tribunal also accepted that the respondent already had the material facts about the one-day deduction and would suffer no prejudice beyond having to defend the claim.

Balancing those factors, the tribunal held that the interests of justice favoured relief from sanction. The dismissal was set aside and the claim was allowed to proceed to hearing. The judgment records that the claimant said he sought only the one day’s pay and nothing further, and that any issue about time off to care for dependants was not a claim he was pursuing.