Mr L F Petrescu v Wasabi Sushi & Bento — 2020

Mr L F Petrescu was dismissed on 25 February 2020 for gross misconduct. He appealed, but the appeal was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, was not heard until 23 October 2020, and was rejected by a decision sent on 1 December 2020. He contacted ACAS on 3 December 2020 and presented his tribunal claim on 23 December 2020. The tribunal accepted that he felt strongly that the dismissal was unfair and that it caused him financial hardship at a time when he and his wife had just had a baby.

The tribunal held that the effective date of termination was 25 February 2020, not the date of the appeal outcome, so the three-month time limit expired on 25 May 2020. It found that the unfair dismissal claim was nearly seven months out of time. Applying section 111 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, the tribunal considered whether it had not been reasonably practicable to present the claim within three months and concluded that it had been reasonably practicable to do so. It noted that the claimant had engaged a solicitor and that, save in unusual circumstances, a claimant cannot rely on solicitor fault to excuse late presentation; it found there was no good reason why the claimant or his solicitor could not have found out the time limit and protected his position by issuing before the internal appeal was heard.

The unfair dismissal claim was therefore struck out for being out of time and outside the tribunal's jurisdiction. The claimant had also ticked claims for race discrimination, religious belief discrimination, unpaid wages, a redundancy payment and unpaid holiday pay, but he clarified at the hearing that unfair dismissal was the only claim he was pursuing. The tribunal dismissed the remaining claims on withdrawal and made no monetary award.