Mr M Edmonson v Mitchell’s & Butler plc: 3200047/2024
JUDGMENT
The claim is struck out.REASONS
[2]Section 108 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 requires a claimant to have not less than two years service to make an unfair dismissal complaint.[3]The claimant was employed by the respondent for less than two years.[4]Therefore the claimant is not entitled to bring these proceedings.[5]The claimant has failed to give an acceptable reason, despite being given the opportunity to do so, why the complaint should not be struck out. Accordingly, the claim is struck out.[1]The application for reconsideration no longer refers to any alleged sex discrimination. He did not apply to add an allegation of sex discrimination to his claim. It is not clear what the alleged sex discrimination is and whether it would have any reasonable prospect of success.[2]The Claimant argues that the facts as set out by the Respondent in its response are untrue and that he has a different version of events leading up to the termination of his employment.[3]The Tribunal is satisfied that the Claimant’s ET1 claim form did not include a complaint of sex discrimination. His claim was of unfair dismissal only. He did not tick any other boxes or refer to anything else in the form.[4]In his application for reconsideration, the Claimant argued about the fairness of his dismissal. He stated that the Respondent misled the Tribunal in its response to the claim because it included inaccuracies, e.g., although the Respondent’s records say that he resigned, he was in fact dismissed. He complained that the Respondent did not consider some of the evidence that he submitted in the disciplinary process and that his dismissal notice did not give him a reason for his dismissal. The Claimant therefore only put forward his disputes with the Respondent on the factual details of his dismissal.[5]It is therefore this Tribunal’s judgment that the Claimant has given no basis on which the Tribunal would have jurisdiction to consider his complaint of unfair dismissal. Section 108 of the Employment Rights Act 1992 states that an employee who has been continuously employed for a period of less than two years, ending with the effective date of termination, cannot bring a complaint of unfair dismissal. There are limited exceptions to this requirement and the Claimant’s circumstances do not come within any of those exceptions.[6]This is not a judgment on the strength of otherwise of the Claimant’s claim. The Tribunal has not heard any evidence on the grounds for dismissal and is unable to make a judgment as to whether his dismissal was unfair. An employee has to have two years’ service before he can bring his case to a Tribunal for hearing, at which point those issues can be addressed.[7]It is this Tribunal’s judgment that there is nothing in the Claimant’s application for reconsideration that challenges this Tribunal’s judgment to strike out his claim. There is nothing in the claimant’s application for reconsideration that in the interests of justice, would require this decision to be reviewed or changed.[8]The Claimant’s application for reconsideration of the Tribunal’s judgment dated 13 July 2024 is therefore refused for the reasons stated above, under Rules 70 and 72 of the Employment Tribunals Rules 2013. The judgment promulgated to the parties on 13 July 2024 is confirmed.