Appeal No.	EAT/1435/99

EMPLOYMENT APPEAL TRIBUNAL
58 VICTORIA EMBANKMENT, LONDON EC4Y 0DS

	At the Tribunal
	On 7 June 2000

Before
HIS HONOUR JUDGE WILCOX
LORD DAVIES OF COITY CBE
MRS J M MATTHIAS

MR BRIAN BATES	APPELLANT

POWERTECH DESIGN LTD	RESPONDENT

Transcript of Proceedings

JUDGMENT

PRELIMINARY HEARING

Revised

	APPEARANCES

For the Appellant	NO APPEARANCE OR
REPRESENTATION
BY OR ON BEHALF OF
THE APPELLANT	

	JUDGE WILCOX:	This is a matter that came before the Employment Tribunal on 21 September 1999.  The position is that Mr Bates contends that he was dismissed from his employment by Powertech Design Ltd on or about 17 November 1998.  Powertech have not taken any part in these proceedings, they are not represented.

1	It seems that there is evidence subsequent to that received by the Tribunal, by way of a letter from the Benefits Agency, a letter of 29 October 1999 confirming that they had spoken to the employer and that the employer confirmed that the employment came to an end due to redundancy.  The documentation, by way of a fact-finding note, seems to corroborate that too.

2	The second issue is clearly that relating to the late seeking of an application before the Tribunal.  The explanation given was that was due to representations made to the Respondent following advice from the Department of Trade & Industry.

3	We have come to the conclusion that there may well be arguable matters that properly warrant further investigation and a full hearing on this matter, relating to the reception of the evidence of 29 October 1999, that letter, and also to evaluating the explanation as to the late making of the application due to the representations made in the letters of the DTI and the following, it is said, of that advice.  To that extent, therefore, we allow this matter to go to a full hearing.  The Category will be Category C.  The normal direction will be given as to skeleton arguments and the preparation of a chronology.