Miss E Oyeniyi v New Focus Healthcare — 2020

Miss Oyeniyi worked for New Focus Healthcare on a casual basis in January and February 2019 as a carer. She said she had difficulty obtaining payment for the shifts worked, was eventually paid £391 on 29 February 2019, and calculated that this left £881 outstanding. She declined to work further shifts and brought a tribunal claim for the money she said was due.

The tribunal dealt first with limitation. It found that the relevant date for payment was 29 February 2019, that early conciliation began on 29 April 2019 and ended with a certificate dated 24 May 2019, and that the claim was not submitted until 27 December 2019. On that basis, the claim should have been presented by 24 June 2019 at the latest and was over six months late.

The tribunal accepted Miss Oyeniyi’s evidence that she knew she could bring a tribunal claim for unpaid wages but did not know the time limit, and that she had tried to resolve matters by email while also being busy with full-time employment and her acting career. It applied the strict statutory test for extension of time, asking whether it had been "not reasonably practicable" to present the claim in time, and concluded that it was practicable for her to do so.

Because the claim was out of time and no extension was justified, the tribunal held that it had no jurisdiction to hear the unpaid wages claim and dismissed it. The decision was made with expressed sympathy for the claimant, but no monetary award was made.