J Stanley Building Contractors v Toms

EMPLOYMENT APPEAL TRIBUNAL 58 VICTORIA EMBANKMENT, LONDON EC4Y 0DS At the Tribunal On 1 June 1998 Before

MR JUSTICE KIRKWOOD : This is the preliminary hearing of an appeal by Mr�Stanley from a decision of an Industrial Tribunal sitting at Cardiff on 1 October 1997, that he, as a person trading as J. Stanley Building Contractors, was liable to pay the Applicant a sum in excess of �3,700 by way of redundancy pay, �2,160 pay in lieu of notice and �150 compensatory award for unfair dismissal.

The sole ground upon which Mr Stanley seeks to prosecute an appeal is that the Applicant to the Industrial Tribunal, Mr Toms, applied to that Tribunal out of time, so that the Tribunal did not have jurisdiction to entertain his claim.

Mr Toms began work with Mr Stanley as a general builder in 1976. He was paid regularly and when Mr Stanley had no work for him, he would be given jobs to do in Mr�Stanley's own home. That arrangement ended in April 1997. Mr Toms worked on Friday 4�April and, at the end of the day, he was told by Mr Stanley that there was no further work. Mr�Stanley gave evidence to the Tribunal that he had suggested to Mr Toms that he could do an emulsioning job for him, but Mr Toms turned that down, saying he was going on holiday for two weeks. Mr Toms denied that such an offer of work had been made.

However that may be, on 16 April Mr Toms called at Mr Stanley's house and asked for "some week-in-hand money" and holiday pay, but was told he was not entitled to any. From the next day he claimed income support and he was paid income support from 1 May onwards.