Miss J Adams and others v Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills — 2021

This was a remote hearing before Employment Judge Rachel Broughton sitting alone on 28 April 2021. The claims arose from an earlier judgment by Employment Judge Britton on 29 November 2019, written on 18 January 2020 and corrected on 18 May 2020, which made a 90-day protective award for hourly paid employees of FFP Realisations 2018 Ltd from 29 October 2018. The present proceedings were complaints under section 192 TULR(C)A against the Secretary of State that payments of that protective award, and for Mr Homewood also a redundancy payment, had been calculated incorrectly.

The tribunal held that the section 192(2) time limit ran from the end of the protected period, which it calculated as 26 January 2019, so the primary deadline expired on 25 April 2019. Referring to Howlett Marine Services Ltd v Bowlam and the authorities on reasonable practicability, the tribunal found that the claims could not have been brought before the protective award existed, but there was no evidence explaining why the ET1 was not presented until 18 May 2020, around six months after the award was made orally on 29 November 2019. The tribunal also noted that ACAS conciliation did not begin until 23 April 2020.

In the individual claims, Mr Dodson said £275.96 had been deducted from a £2,442.96 award; Mr Gegelevicius said his award had been calculated by reference to £270 a week rather than his actual weekly earnings of £308.88; and Mr Homewood said his protective award and redundancy payment had both been underpaid, with the papers referring to weekly pay of £381.03 and disputed redundancy figures of £9,205.56 paid against an alleged entitlement of about £10,668.84 or £10,668.64. The tribunal did not determine those merits because it held that a reasonable further period would have expired by 28 February 2020 and struck out all claims as out of time.