Miss L Klimaite v GfK Retail & Technology UK Limited — 2019

This was a preliminary hearing before Employment Judge Anstis on 23 August 2019. Miss Klimaite did not attend or have representation. The tribunal dealt with strike-out and deposit applications, and it refused the claimant's further request to transfer the hearing to Croydon, noting the late timing of the applications and that the medical note supplied did not address her ability to travel or attend in Reading.

Applying the high threshold for strike out, and referring to Malik v Birmingham City Council and Mechkarov v Citibank NA, the tribunal refused to strike out or require deposits for the unfair dismissal and part-time worker claims. It said the unfair dismissal case was not totally and inexplicably inconsistent with undisputed contemporaneous documents, and that the respondent's comparator arguments on the part-time worker claim were matters for the full hearing rather than reasons to stop the case.

The tribunal struck out the enhanced severance payment claim, the wages and holiday pay claims linked to time spent completing the claimant's expenses claim, and any separate claim for compensation for time. It found no identified basis for an ex gratia severance payment and said work done after employment had ended could not found unlawful deduction from wages, breach of contract, or minimum wage claims. By contrast, the unpaid expenses breach of contract claim was not struck out; the judge said it had little, but not no, reasonable prospects of success, noted indications that expenses had to be claimed within three months, and made a separate deposit order of £100.