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United Kingdom Employment Appeal Tribunal |
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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom Employment Appeal Tribunal >> Baptiste v. Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Office & Anor [2001] UKEAT 0274_00_2303 (23 March 2001) URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/2001/0274_00_2303.html Cite as: [2001] UKEAT 0274_00_2303, [2001] UKEAT 274__2303 |
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At the Tribunal | |
Before
THE HONOURABLE MR JUSTICE LINDSAY (PRESIDENT)
MR B V FITZGERALD MBE
MR G H WRIGHT MBE
APPELLANT | |
(2) MR PETER HUGHES |
RESPONDENT |
Transcript of Proceedings
JUDGMENT
PRELIMINARY HEARING
For the Appellant | NO APPEARANCE OR REPRESENTATION BY OR ON BEHALF OF THE APPELLANT |
MR JUSTICE LINDSAY (PRESIDENT)
"I worked as a Consular Officer for the British High Commissioner in St Lucia."
She then goes on to describe her complaint. She gave her address on the IT1 as 15 Stanthorpe Road, Streatham, London SW16. At that stage she had advisers, North Lambeth Law Centre, and an address for them was given.
"The Respondents aver and admit that at all material times the Applicant was employed as a Consular Officer for the British High Commission in St Lucia under a contract of employment governed by local law."
They added some letters of appointment, and they say:
"Accordingly the Respondents submit that the Tribunal does not have jurisdiction to hear the Applicant's claim for unfair dismissal and/or race discrimination.
They then refer to the Employment Rights Act and point out that relevant sections do not apply to Mrs Baptiste's case. In their paragraph 4 they say:
"Section 4(1) of the Race Relations Act 1976 renders it unlawful to discriminate against employees and prospective employees only in relation to employment at an establishment in Great Britain.
In their paragraph 6 they say:
"The Applicant worked wholly outside Great Britain. The Respondents aver therefore that neither the Employment Rights Act 1996 nor the Race Relations Act 1976 apply to the Applicant.
As it would seem, a pretty comprehensive knock out blow. At all events, the matter went forward and on 4 January 2000 there was a hearing at London South and on 7 January the decision, which was the decision of the Tribunal under the Chairmanship of Mr A Bano and was unanimous, was sent to the parties and it was that:
"The Tribunal does not have jurisdiction to consider these applications further."
"We have not been contacted by the Appellant since October 2000. We therefore wrote to her and said that we could no longer act for her and we closed her file on 20 December 2000. Please contact our former client direct."
"Please confirm within 14 days of the date of this letter whether you are proceeding with this appeal. If no reply is received the matter will be referred to the Registrar for further consideration and direction."
Nothing further has been heard. We assume that that letter sent to 15 Stanthorpe Road has not been returned through the returned post office arrangements. Tempting as it is simply to dismiss the appeal, it is unclear that we have the power to do so at this stage, despite the appeal having all the appearance, on the merits, of being hopeless. No "unless order" has been made and no hearing date has been fixed, no warning has been given by the EAT of the risk of the appeal being struck out or dismissed if nothing is done. So we think it would be premature to dispose of the case at this hearing today. What we do instead is this: we direct that a Preliminary Hearing is to be fixed for a date not earlier than 28 days after whichever is the latest of the sending out of notice to, firstly, Mrs Baptiste's erstwhile solicitors (together with a note asking that it should be forwarded to her if they can forward it to her) and, secondly, to her United Kingdom address as so far given, and, thirdly, to any other address in the United Kingdom believed to be such as may lead to contact with her. Those three directions are to be performed by sending out notice that should expressly warn her that if she neither attends nor is represented at the Preliminary Hearing so fixed there is a real risk that her appeal will be struck out or dismissed without more ado.