Mr R Smith v Beacon Multi-Academy Trust Limited — 2020

The claimant brought a single unfair dismissal claim arising from a redundancy dismissal. The tribunal first determined the preliminary issue of limitation. It treated 30 April 2019 as the effective date of termination, found that the primary three-month limit expired on 29 July 2019, and held that ACAS Early Conciliation extended time only to 4 August 2019, or on the respondent's calculation 5 August 2019. The claim was not presented until 19 August 2019, about two weeks late.

Applying s.111 ERA 1996 and the authority of Palmer & Saunders v Southend-On-Sea Borough Council, the tribunal held that the claimant had not shown it was not reasonably practicable to present the claim in time. It noted that the claimant had been given opportunities to provide a witness statement and medical evidence but did not do so. The tribunal also recorded that the material attached to the claimant's email on 1 September 2020 went mainly to the merits of the dismissal, not to the delay.

The claimant did not attend the CVP hearing after a postponement application was refused. The tribunal proceeded in his absence, rejected the out-of-time argument, and dismissed the claim in its entirety.