UK: No Free-Standing Claim For Failure To Follow Statutory Procedures

In Scott-Davies v Redgate Medical Services the EAT confirmed that there is no statutory provision conferring jurisdiction on Employment Tribunals to consider free-standing complaints that there has been a failure to comply with the statutory dispute resolution procedures. So employees with under the one year's service normally needed to claim unfair dismissal do not have a claim if the statutory 3-step procedure is not followed.

His Honour Judge McMullen QC stated: "If such a statutory provision existed it would specify the time limits for bringing such a claim and the potential remedies for breach of statutory procedures. Indeed it would be contrary to the purpose of the dispute resolution procedures for the tribunal to have jurisdiction to consider such free standing complaints. It would have the effect of increasing the volume of tribunal claims."

Mr Scott-Davies was dismissed before he had served one year with his employer and was therefore excluded by the employment legislation from bringing a claim of unfair dismissal. Instead he brought a claim arguing that if his employer had followed the statutory dispute resolution procedures and given him a written statement of the terms of his employment he may not have been dismissed.

The EAT confirmed that the right to a written statement was not one to which the statutory procedures applied. The complaint of failure to follow a statutory dispute resolution procedure is invoked only as part of an otherwise valid application. As there was no valid application which Mr Scott-Davies could make there could be no jurisdiction to link to it a complaint of failure to follow a statutory procedure.

This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq

The original publication date for this article was 14/11/2006.