Mrs Susan Dinley v Godinton Academy Trust — 2020

The parties agreed that the dispute was about the claimant’s final pay and was pleaded as unlawful deduction of wages and/or breach of contract based on her terms and conditions, rather than as a claim for accrued statutory holiday pay. The claimant’s employment ended on 31 May 2019 and she received her final pay on that date. She had already been disputing the calculation by July 2019.

The tribunal treated limitation as a preliminary jurisdictional issue. It found that the claimant contacted ACAS for early conciliation on the last day of the unextended tribunal deadline, 30 August 2019. ACAS issued an early conciliation certificate dated 30 September 2019, which gave an extended deadline of 30 October 2019. The claimant submitted her tribunal claim on 1 November 2019.

On the evidence, the tribunal found that it was reasonably practicable for the claimant to have submitted her claim before 30 October 2019. It noted that she had the ACAS certificate, had already prepared several versions of her calculations, and could have lodged the claim to preserve her position while continuing to pursue conciliation. The tribunal accepted that she preferred to continue with ACAS rather than issue proceedings, but held that this did not make it not reasonably practicable to present the claim in time.

The tribunal also considered the claimant’s account that ACAS told her there was some leeway after 30 October 2019. Even if that was so, the tribunal found that ACAS communications made clear that ACAS could not advise on deadlines and that responsibility for submitting the claim on time remained with the claimant. The claim was therefore out of time and was dismissed; no substantive remedy was awarded.