Ms K Bremner v Jewel Miners Welfare Society: 8002145/2024
JUDGMENT
The judgment of the Employment Tribunal is that the claim be dismissed in accordance with Rule 47 of the Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulation 2024 due to the claimant’s failure to attend or be represented at the hearing.REASONS
[1]A notice of final hearing was set to the parties by email of 21 January 2025. The hearing was listed to take place on 12, 13 and 14 March 2025 at 10.00am in the Edinburgh Employment Tribunal.[2]At the scheduled start time on the first day, neither party was present or represented. The Employment Tribunal Clerk made efforts to contact both parties. Mr Caven responded to a telephone call on behalf of the respondent. It became apparent that the email address used for him was incorrect with one letter incorrectly transposed from his handwritten ET3 form. His position was that he had not, therefore, received the hearing notification.[3]Efforts to contact the claimant were unsuccessful. The Tribunal Clerk left telephone messages for her to respond. She did not do so. The phone number used matched the number on the ET1 form and the recorded message bore to be from the claimant.[4]The Tribunal Clerk also emailed the claimant using the email address on the ET1 form requesting that she respond by return to explain her nonattendance. No response was received.[5]The Tribunal established that the email used for the claimant to notify her of the hearing was the same as that used on the ET1 form.[6]The Tribunal read the case file in order to ascertain whether there would be any other reason for the claimant’s non-attendance. There was no evidence of any contact at all from the claimant following the issuing of the hearing notice.[7]Moreover, by email dated 17 January 2025, both parties were issued an Order of the Employment Tribunal requiring, amongst other things, that the claimant should, within 14 days, provide a schedule of loss. There was nothing on the case file to suggest that she had done so.[8]Against that background, the Employment Tribunal considered the terms of Rule 47 (referred to above). Having regard to the claimant’s failure to attend, her failure to respond to telephone and email messages, and her earlier failure to comply with the Order of the Employment Tribunal, it was considered appropriate that the claim be dismissed.