Practice and Procedure – Withdrawal
During a Preliminary Hearing to consider whether any of the claims should be struck out as lacking reasonable prospects of success or made the subject of deposit orders, the Claimant, who was unrepresented, indicated she was withdrawing her claim for automatically unfair dismissal pursuant to regulation 7(1)(b) Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006. The Employment Tribunal dismissed this claim upon her withdrawal and made deposit orders in relation to her other claims.
The Claimant appealed contending that the Tribunal had erred in law in dismissing her automatically unfair dismissal claim as the Employment Judge had failed to ensure that she had made an informed choice when she withdrew this claim and/or had exerted unfair pressure on her to do so.
The appeal was dismissed. Having regard to all the circumstances, the withdrawal of the automatically unfair dismissal claim was clear, unambiguous, and unequivocal and there was nothing to reasonably suggest otherwise to the Employment Judge. In so far as he questioned the Claimant as to why she said her dismissal was linked to the TUPE transfer, the Employment Judge acted properly and understandably, given the strike out application he had to determine and with a view to understanding the way she put her claim. The questions he asked were fair and clear, and the Claimant was given an appropriate opportunity to consider whether or not to withdraw this part of her claim, in circumstances where it was clear what the implications of that were for its future pursuit. There was no unfair pressure put on her to do so.
Citations:
[2019] UKEAT 0104 – 19 – 1209
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 14 October 2022; Ref: scu.646847
