Mr J Lyons v Jelthat Ltd T/A Newport Mazda — 2022

Mr J Lyons brought a claim for notice pay arising from the end of his employment with Jelthat Ltd T/A Newport Mazda. The tribunal recorded that he had worked as Aftersales Director from August 2018 until December 2019, and that the claim sought £2,366.66. The respondent disputed liability, but the hearing turned first on whether the claim had been presented in time.

The tribunal found that the relevant end date was 6 December 2019 and that the claim was not brought within the three-month limit. It accepted that the claimant said he did not know about the time limit and thought he had 12 months to claim, but the tribunal held that ignorance of time limits was not a reasonable explanation on these facts. It noted that the claimant had already identified a potential claim, had engaged with ACAS, and then took no further action for several months.

Applying the three-month time limit and the question whether it was reasonably practicable to present the claim in time, the tribunal concluded that the claimant had failed to take the basic steps needed to investigate the applicable deadline. It referred to Trevelyans (Birmingham) Ltd v Norton and said that a claimant aware of the right to complain is generally expected to enquire about the time limit. The tribunal also noted that it had been given no evidence of any difficulty with ACAS or any other obstacle preventing an earlier claim.

The claim for notice pay was therefore dismissed for want of jurisdiction. No substantive decision on the underlying notice pay dispute was made, and no monetary award was recorded.