Labour Court dismisses Luiz Alberto Pereira da Silva’s appeal on jurisdiction grounds

The Labour Court dismissed Luiz Alberto Pereira da Silva’s unfair dismissal appeal against Svetac Limited because it had no jurisdiction to hear it. The Court upheld the adjudicator’s decision; the merits were not decided. The Court said da Silva had less than one year’s service, so the Unfair Dismissals Act did not give it jurisdiction over his appeal. It also said it could not hear an equality claim raised for the first time on appeal because no such complaint had been made to the WRC. At the original WRC hearing, da Silva did not attend; the adjudicator found that he had not been unfairly dismissed. Da Silva later said he had received only two days’ notice of that hearing because he had changed address. The Labour Court determination was signed on 12 April 2023.