United Kingdom Employment Appeal Tribunal

APPEARANCES

 

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


 


JUDGE DAVID WILCOX:

1. Mr Gritz is not present. The appeal relates to his failure to present his complaint against the Respondent within three months after 20 March 1998, which was the material date. He was unable, in his application to the Tribunal, to produce any correspondence or documents to show that he was promised by his employer, the First Respondent, payment of sums which were due which would warrant him therefore waiting.
2. The issue before the Chairman was clearly whether it was reasonably practicable for the Applicant to have presented his claim against the First Respondent within three months. He did not persuade the Chairman thus and, in the absence of any evidence that it was reasonably practicable or that there was misdirection, it is clear that the Chairman of the Tribunal did not have jurisdiction to hear the Applicant's substantive complaint against the First Respondent.
3. It is interesting to note that a search was in fact made against the Respondent. That search relating to insolvency, in particular, the Company search indicated that no steps had been taken to show that the Company had in fact been put into liquidation. The Chairman was not satisfied that the Respondent was insolvent and, for that reason alone, it is clear that substantively the Applicant's complaints against the Second Respondent, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, to the appeal could not be maintained.
4. There is no merit in the appeal and we dismiss it.