Mr O Sanodze v Chris Hayter Transport Ltd PRELIMINARY HEARING — 2019

At the preliminary hearing on 2 August 2019, Employment Judge Gumbiti-Zimuto considered limitation and jurisdiction only. The claimant was dismissed on 9 June 2017, started ACAS early conciliation on 3 July 2017, received a certificate on 3 August 2017, and did not present his tribunal claim until March 2018, after the ordinary time limits had expired.

The tribunal struck out the unfair dismissal complaint because it was presented outside the three-month limit in s.111(2) ERA 1996 and the judge was not satisfied that it had not been reasonably practicable to present it in time. The claimant did not provide a sufficient explanation for the delay. The judge noted a bereavement around the relevant period and that the claimant had made enquiries about his legal rights, but those points did not excuse the late unfair dismissal claim.

The judge accepted that the claimant could pursue a direct race discrimination complaint so far as it related to the dismissal itself. He found it just and equitable to extend time for that complaint only, noting that the respondent would not suffer significant hardship or prejudice in answering a dismissal-based race discrimination case. The tribunal did not determine the merits of the dismissal complaint, and it recorded the respondent's case that the dismissal was redundancy and that race played no part.

The wider race discrimination allegations, described as complaints going back through the claimant's employment, were not allowed to proceed. The judge held that it would not be just and equitable to extend time for those unparticularised allegations and limited the case to the dismissal issue only. He also noted that the claimant associated his later employment problems with the dismissal, but there was no evidence before the tribunal of any actual connection between those later problems and the respondent.