Miss M Gribbin v Herefordshire Council — 2023

At the public preliminary hearing on 29 November 2023, Employment Judge Hindmarch considered whether the claim form should have been rejected because the claimant ticked an early conciliation exemption on the ET1 when no exemption applied. The evidence before the tribunal showed that the claimant presented the ET1 on 5 January 2023, before the ACAS early conciliation certificate was issued on 6 January 2023. The claimant had answered that her employer had already been in touch with ACAS, but the tribunal found that this was incorrect because it was the claimant, not the respondent, who had started early conciliation.

The tribunal accepted that the respondent had told ACAS that it did not wish to engage in early conciliation, and that the claimant believed from ACAS communications and the ACAS website that she could submit her ET1 at that point. However, applying section 18A of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996 and the authorities cited, including Pryce v Baxsterstorey Ltd, Cranwell v Cullen and Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd v Clark and Ors, the tribunal held that the claimant did not have the required certificate when the claim was presented and no exemption applied. The tribunal therefore concluded that the claim should have been rejected under Rule 12(1)(d).

Because the claim had not been rejected at the acceptance stage, the tribunal treated the later listing as the Rule 27 process and held that it had no jurisdiction to permit the claim to proceed. The tribunal said it had no discretion to allow the claim to continue and dismissed the claim under Rule 27. No merits findings or remedy awards were made.