Sarah Perryman v RSL Awards Ltd — 2020

This was a preliminary judgment on time limits only, not a determination of the merits. The claimant, Sarah Perryman, resigned on 31 July 2019 with notice expiring on 22 September 2019. The early conciliation notification was made on 29 November 2019, the certificate was dated 29 December 2019, and the claim was lodged on 30 January 2020, one day outside the limitation date of 29 January 2020.

For the unfair dismissal claim, Employment Judge Housego accepted the claimant's evidence about the circumstances affecting her at the time, including maternity leave, the birth of her baby on 21 March 2019, her move back to Cardiff, a new job, her father's death in 2019, and anxiety and depression for which she was taking Sertraline and receiving counselling. The judge found that she knew there was a time limit but mistakenly believed the deadline was the end of January, and that this error was understandable in her circumstances. The tribunal held that it was not reasonably practicable to present the claim in time and that the short delay after expiry was reasonable.

For the discrimination claim, the tribunal applied the just and equitable time limit and reached the same practical conclusion. The judge noted that the same considerations applied, and also took account of the limited prejudice to the respondent from a delay of less than 24 hours, compared with the claimant losing the claim entirely if it were struck out. The result was that both claims were allowed to proceed and neither was struck out. No substantive liability decision or monetary award was made in this judgment, and directions were redated for the later case management timetable.