Mr G Fletcher v Nexperia (UK) Ltd — 2021

Mr Fletcher was employed by Nexperia (UK) Ltd as a Production Manager from 25 July 2011 until his dismissal on 16 December 2019. He brought claims for unfair dismissal and breach of contract (notice). The preliminary hearing was to decide whether those claims had been presented within the relevant time limits. The tribunal recorded that ACAS early conciliation began on 9 March 2020 and the certificate was issued on 9 April 2020, so the primary deadline was 9 May 2020.

The first claim form was lodged on 6 May 2020, but the ACAS early conciliation number entered on it was wrong. The tribunal accepted that the mistake was unintentional and occurred during the early COVID-19 lockdown when the solicitor was working remotely, but it held that the error did not make it not reasonably practicable to present the claims in time. It applied section 111(2) ERA 1996 and the equivalent notice-claim time limit in regulation 7 of the Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (England and Wales) Order 1994, together with the authorities it discussed on reasonable practicability, including Lowri Beck Services Ltd v Patrick Brophy, Wall's Meat Co Ltd v Khan, Dedman v British Building & Engineering Appliances Ltd, and North East London NHS Foundation Trust v Zhou.

The tribunal therefore found that both claim forms were out of time and that it had no jurisdiction to consider any of the claims. It also rejected the respondent's request to vary or set aside Employment Judge Parkin's earlier decision: the original rejection had been correct, but the defect was later rectified, so the claim was properly treated as presented on 13 May 2020 under rule 13. The tribunal said that did not change the conclusion that the claims were still out of time. No compensation or other remedy was awarded because the claims were dismissed at the jurisdiction stage.