Liam McInally v Clapton Park Management Organisation Limited — 2022

Liam McInally was employed by Clapton Park Management Organisation as a maintenance operative from 24 April 2018 until 24 October 2020, when he was dismissed for gross misconduct. At the preliminary hearing on 24 February 2022, the tribunal noted that his age, race and religious discrimination claims, together with claims for unpaid sums including redundancy pay and notice pay, had already been withdrawn. The only live issue was whether the unfair dismissal complaint had been brought in time, and whether the claimant’s later application to amend could proceed.

The tribunal found that the effective date of termination was 24 October 2020, that early conciliation ran from 19 November 2020 to 19 December 2020, and that the extended time limit expired on 22 February 2021. The ET1 was not presented until 12 March 2021. Applying section 111 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and the two-stage test for whether it was "not reasonably practicable" to present the claim in time, the tribunal found that it was reasonably practicable for the claimant to have lodged the claim within the primary limitation period.

In reaching that conclusion, the tribunal accepted that the claimant had health problems, but found that he had been in contact with ACAS and his solicitor in mid-November 2020, knew that unfair dismissal claims had a three-month limit, and understood that his dismissal had occurred on or around 24 October 2020 rather than 17 December 2020, when his appeal was later dismissed. The tribunal rejected his evidence that he believed time only started to run from the appeal outcome.

Because the unfair dismissal claim was out of time, the tribunal held that it had no jurisdiction to hear it and struck it out. It also held that the proposed amendment to add disability discrimination could not proceed because there was no existing live claim to amend, and in any event the claimant’s evidence was that he had not pleaded disability discrimination in the ET1 and had not believed at the time that he was disabled or treated less favourably because of disability.