Ms J Benyi v Noolyn Care Ltd t/a Caremark (Barnet & Enfield) — 2024

The tribunal considered a preliminary issue about the claimant’s complaints that the transferor and/or transferee had breached TUPE inform/consult obligations. The relevant transfer took place on 20 February 2023. The tribunal found that the three-month limitation period under Regulation 15(12) TUPE expired on 19 May 2023, and that ACAS early conciliation did not begin until 23 June 2023, so it could not extend the time limit for this claim.

The claimant knew by 20 February 2023 that a TUPE transfer had happened and that TUPE rights were engaged. The tribunal accepted that she later researched TUPE online, contacted ACAS several times, and wrote to the respondent in April 2023 about her post-transfer pay, job title, company vehicle and contractual rights. It also accepted that ACAS did not specifically tell her about the transferor’s inform/consult obligations.

The tribunal held, however, that her ignorance of the potential Regulation 15 inform/consult claim and its time limit was not reasonable. It found that the relevant information was available through the websites she had used, that she was asking ACAS about post-transfer contractual issues rather than pre-transfer inform/consult obligations, and that it was not reasonable to assume ACAS would raise every possible TUPE issue unprompted. On that basis, it concluded that it had been reasonably practicable to present the claim in time.

The outcome was that all TUPE inform/consult complaints were dismissed as out of time. The tribunal did not decide the substantive merits of any alleged inform/consult breach, and it noted that this ruling did not affect the claimant’s other complaints, including any complaints that remained to be heard at the final hearing.