Case 2304640/2023 · Employment Tribunal
David Weekes v Knauf (UK) Gmbh and 1 other — 2024
- Case reference
- 2304640/2023
- Decision date
- 25 June 2024
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Judge
- Employment Judge Housego Representation
- Venue
- London South
Parties
3 namedClaimant
David Weekes
Respondents
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningThe claimant, David Weekes, was employed by Knauf (UK) Gmbh. The tribunal dismissed the claim against Sarah Gibson, who worked in the employer's human resources department, with the claimant's consent because she was not his employer and could not be liable for unfair dismissal or notice pay.
The tribunal found that the claimant was dismissed by email on 22 March 2023, with a letter giving full reasons attached. It also found that he submitted an appeal against the dismissal by email on 24 March 2023, so he knew of the dismissal no later than that date. The extracted text contains an apparent year inconsistency in one paragraph, but the tribunal's limitation analysis proceeds on a March 2023 dismissal date.
The claimant contacted ACAS on 24 June 2023 and an early conciliation certificate was issued on 1 August 2023. The tribunal held that the three-month limitation period for the unfair dismissal and notice pay claims expired on 23 June 2023, so contacting ACAS after that date did not extend time. It also found that it was reasonably practicable for the claimant to present his claim within the three months because he had already prepared an appeal letter setting out what he needed, and there were no personal circumstances preventing him from filing.
Because the claims were out of time and time could not be extended, the tribunal dismissed the unfair dismissal and notice pay claims.
Claims and outcomes
2 findings recorded| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unfair dismissal | Dismissed on limitation grounds. The tribunal found the claimant was told of the dismissal by email on 22 March 2023 and that he knew of it no later than 24 March 2023 when he appealed. The extracted text contains an apparent year typo in the appeal date, but the reasoning is clearly based on March 2023. | Dismissed | — | — |
| Breach of contract | The notice pay claim was dismissed on the same limitation reasoning as the unfair dismissal claim. The tribunal did not carry out a separate merits analysis of the contractual claim. | Dismissed | — | — |
Legal tests applied
3 references- dismissal only takes effect when an employee knows of it
- ACAS early conciliation extension
- reasonably practicable
Official outcome judgment PDF
Gov.uk primary recordThe official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.
Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How we got this data
Case essentials (reference, date, judge, venue, country, claim categories) are extracted from the structured metadata gov.uk publishes alongside each decision. Parties and monetary figures are extracted from the judgment PDF text. Key findings and per-claim outcomes require a second extraction pass that is not yet complete for this case — until then, the primary source linked above is the authoritative record. See full methodology.
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