In person For the v Respondent — 2022

The claimant presented a claim on 24 February 2021 complaining of disability discrimination arising out of his employment as a warehouse colleague. The tribunal accepted that he contacted ACAS at 05:57 on 24 February 2021 and presented the ET1 a few minutes later at 06:10, while the Early Conciliation Certificate was not issued until 26 February 2021.

Employment Judge George held that the claimant was subject to the s.18A ETA 1996 requirement to notify ACAS before instituting relevant proceedings and that s.18A(8) prevented him from presenting the claim form without a certificate under subsection (4). The tribunal accepted the respondent's submission that the claimant did not fall within any ACAS exemption. It also noted that the claim had initially been rejected on 1 March 2021 for lack of an early conciliation number and an invalid exemption, then later accepted on 18 March 2021 after the certificate was sent on 4 March 2021.

Applying Pryce v Baxter-Storey [2022] EAT 61, the tribunal held that sending the certificate after presentation of the claim did not amount to a fresh presentation on the prescribed form, and the tribunal had no power to waive that requirement. The claim was therefore dismissed under rule 37(1)(a) because the tribunal had no jurisdiction to hear it. The judge did not assess the merits of the discrimination allegations, but noted that any fresh claim would likely be out of time and would need an application to extend time.