Case 2602036/2023 · Employment Tribunal
Miss Victoria Walster v Little Adventurers Forest School (Walesby) Limited PRELIMINARY HEARING — 2024
- Case reference
- 2602036/2023
- Decision date
- 27 November 2024
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Judge
- Employment Judge Cansick Representation
- Venue
- Nottingham
Parties
2 namedClaimant
Miss Victoria Walster
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningThe claimant brought complaints of automatic unfair dismissal for making protected disclosures, detriment for making protected disclosures, unpaid holiday pay and unauthorised deduction of wages. The preliminary hearing considered whether the accepted claim form, presented on 22 September 2023, had been presented within the statutory time limits.
The tribunal took the later asserted termination date for the purposes of the time-limit issue. On that basis, the wages claim was 13 days out of time and the other three complaints were 23 days out of time. The claimant relied on confusion about the rejected earlier claim form, Tribunal correspondence, and her mental state during the relevant period.
The tribunal accepted that the claimant had been suffering from self-harm, but found that she had not established that her mental state meant it was not reasonably practicable to submit the claim in time. It also found that by 8 August 2023 the Tribunal had made clear that a new claim with the correct respondent name should be submitted. The claim was dismissed as out of time.
Claims and outcomes
4 findings recorded| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unfair dismissal | The judgment describes this as automatic unfair dismissal for making protected disclosures. The claim was dismissed because it was not presented within the applicable time limits and the tribunal found it was reasonably practicable to present it in time. | Dismissed | — | — |
| Whistleblowing | The judgment describes a complaint of detriment for making protected disclosures. The claim was dismissed because it was not presented within the applicable time limits and the tribunal found it was reasonably practicable to present it in time. | Dismissed | — | — |
| Holiday pay | The unpaid holiday pay complaint was dismissed because it was not presented within the applicable time limits and the tribunal found it was reasonably practicable to present it in time. | Dismissed | — | — |
| Unlawful deduction from wages | The unauthorised deduction of wages complaint was dismissed because it was not presented within the applicable time limits and the tribunal found it was reasonably practicable to present it in time. | Dismissed | — | — |
Legal tests applied
6 references- reasonably practicable
- Poter v Bandridge Ltd [1978] IRLR 271
- Wall's Meat Co Ltd v Khan [1978] IRLR
- Avon County Council v Haywood-Hicks [1978] IRLR 118
- Westward Circuits Ltd v Read [1973] ICR 301
- Northumberland County Council v Thompson UKEAT/209/07
Official outcome judgment PDF
Gov.uk primary recordThe official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.
Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How we got this data
Case essentials (reference, date, judge, venue, country, claim categories) are extracted from the structured metadata gov.uk publishes alongside each decision. Parties and monetary figures are extracted from the judgment PDF text. Key findings and per-claim outcomes require a second extraction pass that is not yet complete for this case — until then, the primary source linked above is the authoritative record. See full methodology.
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