Mr A McFarlane v Gestamp Tallent Ltd — 2025

The case was listed for a final hearing at Newcastle by CVP on 9 July 2025 before Employment Judge Davies. The claimant, Mr A McFarlane, did not attend. The respondent was represented by Mr Dulovic, solicitor.

The reasons record that notice of the final hearing and standard case management orders were sent on 19 March 2025. The respondent had applied to postpone the final hearing because a witness was unavailable, and Employment Judge Sweeney later ordered on 27 June 2025 that the hearing be converted to a preliminary hearing for case management. The claimant had not corresponded with the tribunal about the postponement application, and the tribunal did not have a telephone number for him.

The judge emailed the claimant after the start time of the hearing but received no response by 10.30am. The claimant had not contacted the tribunal to say that he would not be attending or to explain his absence, and he had known about the hearing since 19 March 2025. In those circumstances, the judge was satisfied that dismissal was consistent with the overriding objective and dismissed the claim pursuant to Rule 47 of the Employment Tribunal Rules of Procedure 2024.