Mr M Bhuiyan v Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Limited — 2019

The Claimant brought complaints relating to redundancy pay, pay in lieu of notice, arrears or other payments, and Saturday and Sunday premium payments. At the preliminary hearing he clarified that he was not pursuing unlawful discrimination, that the Respondent had paid the redundancy payment owed, and that the remaining disputed sums were pay in lieu of notice and premium payments.

The Tribunal found that the unlawful deduction from wages complaint about premium payments was years out of time, and that it was reasonably practicable for the Claimant to have brought that complaint in time. Treating the premium issue also as a possible breach of contract claim did not assist the Claimant because he had not been trying to resolve that matter internally during the relevant period.

For the pay in lieu of notice breach of contract complaint, the Tribunal accepted, applying a liberal interpretation in favour of the employee, that it was not reasonably practicable to present the complaint within the primary time limit because the Claimant had made considerable efforts to resolve that matter internally. However, after early conciliation ended, the Tribunal found that the Claimant delayed too long before presenting the claim and had not acted with a reasonable degree of urgency. The Tribunal therefore held that it had no jurisdiction to consider the complaints and dismissed them.