Mrs A Laketu v ABM Facility Services UK Ltd (sued as “ABM”) — 2022

The Claimant was dismissed with an effective date of termination of 28 October 2020. To be in time she needed to notify ACAS by 28 January 2021, but she did so on 3 February 2021 and then presented the claim on 12 March 2021. The Tribunal found that the complaints of unfair dismissal, breach of contract, whistleblowing dismissal and whistleblowing detriment were presented out of time.

The Tribunal considered the Claimant's health problems, domestic circumstances, and reliance on the internal appeal process. It found that she had solicitors acting for her throughout the dismissal and appeal process, that her solicitor had been told on 25 January 2021 that the internal process had concluded, and that no satisfactory explanation had been given for why ACAS could not have been contacted five days earlier. The Tribunal held that it was reasonably practicable to present those claims in time and that it had no jurisdiction to hear them.

For the victimisation claim, the Tribunal applied the just and equitable extension test. It assumed for the purposes of that exercise that the Claimant could establish disability and that her footwear complaint was a request for a reasonable adjustment, but considered the claim appeared weak in light of contemporaneous records of complaints from five individuals and the absence of evidential basis for the Claimant's allegation that those documents were fabricated. It concluded that it was not just and equitable to extend time and dismissed all claims for want of jurisdiction.