In person, assisted by an Interpreter, Ms D Carty v Respondent — 2019

At the preliminary hearing on 20 November 2018 before Employment Judge Harrington sitting alone, the tribunal confined the hearing to the respondent's limitation argument on the unlawful deduction from wages claim. The respondent's request to extend the hearing to the discrimination time-limit issue was refused because the claimant had not been put on notice, so the race discrimination allegations were not determined at this hearing.

The claimant said she was no longer pursuing the unpaid annual leave claim, and that part of the case was dismissed upon withdrawal. The tribunal then considered the wages claim, finding that the claimant last worked on 10 July 2017 and that her final payment was made on 5 August 2017. It accepted her evidence that she did not receive the gross payslip advice until later in August 2017, but also found that she had previously compared timesheets and gross payslip advice and had raised pay discrepancies with management in 2016 and 2017.

Applying section 23 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, the tribunal held that the unlawful deduction complaint was presented out of time. Even allowing for the early conciliation extension, the ET1 received on 7 December 2017 was a little over three weeks late. The tribunal was not satisfied that it had not been reasonably practicable to present the claim within the three-month period, or that waiting for CAB advice and dealing with job-search pressures justified the delay, so the claim could not proceed.