Cabezuelo v Stella Travel Services UK Ltd & Anor

On disposing of an appeal, the Employment Appeal Tribunal may exercise a power available to the Employment Tribunal under section 35(1)(a) of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996. Where Rule 66 of the Employment Tribunal Rules permits the Employment Tribunal to fix a time for payment of a costs order, the Appeal Tribunal may do so when substituting a corrected costs order.

The Employment Tribunal struck out the claimant’s unfair-dismissal claim and ordered him to pay £7,500 costs. The sum incorrectly included VAT. Permission for the appeal was confined to correcting that error, reducing the costs to £6,000.

The parties agreed that the appeal should be allowed to that extent. They differed on whether the Employment Appeal Tribunal had jurisdiction, when substituting the reduced order, to require payment by a specified date.

1. Appeal allowed. The Employment Appeal Tribunal substituted a costs order for £6,000, removing the VAT that had wrongly been included in the Employment Tribunal’s £7,500 order.

2. Section 35(1)(a) of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996 permits the Appeal Tribunal, for the purpose of disposing of an appeal, to exercise any power of the tribunal from which the appeal was brought. Rule 66 of the Employment Tribunal Rules empowers an Employment Tribunal to impose a time for payment. It followed that the Appeal Tribunal had jurisdiction to specify a payment date in its substituted order.

3. It was appropriate to exercise that power. The original order had been made in January 2017, the costs remained unpaid, and the claimant did not seek further time. To avoid confusion, the substituted order required payment of £6,000 by close of business on 2 November 2018.

• Employment Appeal Tribunal: Allowed the claimant’s limited appeal and substituted a costs order of £6,000, payable by 2 November 2018.
• Employment Tribunal: Following a preliminary hearing, struck out the claimant’s unfair-dismissal claim and ordered him to pay £7,500 costs, including VAT.