In Haydar v Pennine Acute NHS Trust, the Claimant had brought claims against his employer which included unfair dismissal and discrimination. His claim for discrimination was dismissed and, although, the unfair dismissal claim was upheld a finding of contributory fault was made. The claimant alleged that he sent an appeal against this judgment to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) prior to the relevant deadline, however, there was no record of this being received by the EAT. The Claimant contacted the EAT some five weeks after the deadline and was told it had not been received. The Court of Appeal (COA) upheld the EAT’s previous judgement that the appeal would not be allowed.
The Tribunals have issued a guidance booklet which clearly states that the appellant should contact the Tribunal within 7 days if they do not receive an acknowledgment. The claimant had not read this and had delayed for over five weeks which the COA felt was ‘serious or significant’ in the context of an appeal. The claimant alleged that he did not read the booklet as he had used his knowledge of the appeal process (having raised at least eight appeals previously) and guidance in the Practice Direction instead but this was not held to be a good excuse.
The lesson to be taken away here, is that parties should read and comply with guidance referred to them by the Tribunals and should not just assume their claim has been accepted if they have not received a prompt acknowledgement.