Mr A Rump v David Dove Recovery Limited — 2022

The claimant, Mr A Rump, and the respondent did not attend the hearing on 1 November 2022 at Newcastle CFCTC. The tribunal contacted both parties by telephone and email before deciding, under Rule 47 and the overriding objective, to proceed in their absence. The claimant replied that he was at work but did not explain why he had not arranged to attend; the respondent said it thought the hearing was on 2 November 2022 and mentioned recent surgery.

On the papers, the tribunal found that the claimant's employment ended on 21 April 2022. He started early conciliation on 11 May 2022 and received the ACAS early conciliation certificate on 16 May 2022. The tribunal calculated the initial limitation date as 20 July 2022 and, allowing for the five-day early conciliation period, the extended limitation date as 25 July 2022. The ET1 was presented on 11 August 2022, 16 days after that date.

The judgment identifies the claimant's complaints as holiday pay and an unspecified claim for "other payments", which the tribunal said appeared to relate to wages. It held that the Working Time Regulations 1998 and the Employment Rights Act 1996 contain mirror limitation provisions and that a tribunal may only extend time where it was not reasonably practicable to present the claim in time and the further delay was reasonable.

The tribunal found that the claimant had given no explanation in the ET1 or other correspondence for the late presentation. It noted that the claimant had been notified of the hearing and that there was nothing to suggest he could not have arranged his working time to attend a two-hour hearing. The tribunal therefore found that it had been reasonably practicable for the claimant to submit the claim in time, and that it was not permitted to consider the complaints. All claims were dismissed on limitation grounds only, without a merits determination.