Mr J Kidane Zegay v Mr B Boylan and 1 other — 2019

The claimant was dismissed by a letter sent on 14 March 2019. The tribunal found that he read the email version by 15 March 2019 at the latest, so the effective date of termination was 15 March 2019. At the hearing the claimant confirmed that Mr B Boylan was not his employer, withdrew the claims against him, and the tribunal dismissed those complaints upon withdrawal. The correct respondent was Freedom Sportsline Ltd.

Applying the early conciliation rules, the tribunal found that the relevant extended limitation date for the unfair dismissal and breach of contract claims was 28 July 2019. The ET1 was received on 9 August 2019. The tribunal held that it would have been reasonably practicable for the claimant to present those claims in time, and in any event the delay after any later awareness of the certificate was unreasonable. The unfair dismissal and breach of contract claims were therefore dismissed as out of time.

The tribunal treated the holiday-pay complaints separately. It held that claims relating to holiday actually taken were out of time because the last leave taken was before October 2017, and the gap in payments meant any series of deductions had broken. By contrast, the claim said to arise from payment in lieu of unused holiday on termination was not finally decided at the preliminary hearing. The tribunal did not decide whether there had been a complete non-payment or a shortfall, and left that time-limit issue for the full merits hearing.

The redundancy payment issue was also left open on the merits. The tribunal held that the referral was not out of time because the claimant had referred the question to the tribunal within six months of the effective date of termination. The hearing listed for the full merits hearing was to deal with the unlawful deduction from wages complaint about holiday pay on termination and the redundancy payment only.