Miss R Radcliffe v North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust — 2022

This was a preliminary hearing on limitation only. The claimant, Miss R Radcliffe, resigned on 28 September 2021 and her employment ended on 10 October 2021. The tribunal recorded that the unfair dismissal claim was not presented until 28 July 2022, well outside the primary three-month limit, even allowing for the ACAS early conciliation period from 13 to 15 July 2022. The claimant accepted that the claim had not been presented within the primary time limit if no extension applied.

The tribunal directed itself to section 111 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and the question whether it was not reasonably practicable to present the claim in time. It noted the liberal approach in authorities including Dedman v British Building and Engineering Appliances Ltd and Marks & Spencer Limited v Williams-Ryan, and also considered Palmer v Southend-on-sea Borough Council, Pazkowski v Sieradzka, and Bodha v Hampshire Area Health Authority. The claimant said she relied on Unison representatives, had asked repeatedly for access to a solicitor, and had not been told about tribunal time limits.

The tribunal accepted that the claimant genuinely relied on her union advisers and that she could not afford a solicitor, but it found that there was no physical impediment preventing her from finding out how to present a claim or from speaking to ACAS earlier. It held that relevant information about time limits was readily available, that she had already been in contact with ACAS in early or mid 2021, and that it was reasonably practicable for her to have commenced ACAS early conciliation, or otherwise to have presented the claim, by 9 January 2022. The tribunal also said that the union advisers' failure to mention time limits did not make the statutory test fail on these facts.

Because the claim was out of time and it was reasonably practicable to present it in time, the tribunal dismissed the unfair dismissal claim for lack of jurisdiction. It added, without needing to decide the point, that if it had been necessary to consider the later filing after the ACAS advice on 13 July 2022, it would have regarded the 28 July 2022 claim as presented within such further time as was reasonable in the circumstances.