Ms N Roberts v Cardiff County Council — 2023

Ms N Roberts had been employed by Cardiff County Council from February 2007 and resigned with immediate effect on 4 November 2021. The tribunal recorded that, from the claim form and the correspondence on the file, she should be treated as bringing claims of protected disclosure detriment, constructive unfair dismissal by reason of protected disclosure, ordinary unfair dismissal, and disability discrimination, although the detail of the discrimination claim still needed to be clarified at a further preliminary hearing.

The issues before Employment Judge S Jenkins were whether the unfair dismissal complaint was out of time, whether it should be struck out, and whether a deposit order should be made. The tribunal found that the effective date of termination was 4 November 2021, so the primary limitation period expired on 3 February 2022. Ms Roberts contacted ACAS on 13 January 2022, the early conciliation certificate issued on 23 February 2022, and the period was extended to 23 March 2022. Although the claim form was not submitted until 30 March 2022, the tribunal accepted that settlement discussions via ACAS had appeared to reach agreement on 21 or 22 March 2022 and that Ms Roberts then experienced a recurrence of ill health, so it was not reasonably practicable to present the claim earlier and it was submitted within a further reasonable period.

The respondent's strike out and deposit applications were refused. Applying the authorities cited in the judgment, the tribunal held that there were disputed facts and disputed interpretations at the centre of the constructive unfair dismissal case, including the significance of Ms Thomas's 1 September 2021 email about redeployment and Ms Roberts's 15 November 2021 email about AMHP work. Those matters required a full merits hearing and were not suitable for strike out or for a deposit order at this stage.