In person For the v Ms J Moore — 2019

This was a preliminary hearing on whether Mr D Salmon's unfair dismissal claim was in time. The tribunal found that his employment ended on 30 March 2019, so the three-month limit under section 111 ERA 1996 expired on 29 June 2019. The claim was not presented until 10 July 2019, and ACAS received the Early Conciliation notification only on 5 July 2019, after the time limit had already expired.

The claimant accepted the termination date but said he did not know about the further investigations until 14 March 2019 and then awaited a Civil Aviation Authority investigation concerning his CTC clearance. The tribunal accepted that the CAA granted clearance on 16 June 2019, which was 13 days before expiry of the limitation period, but held that this did not prevent him from starting the tribunal process or contacting ACAS before 29 June 2019.

Applying section 111(2)(b) ERA 1996, the tribunal concluded that it had not been shown that it was not reasonably practicable to present the claim in time. It noted that the claimant could have started proceedings and withdrawn them later if necessary, and was not satisfied that telephone contact with ACAS or submission of an early conciliation form before the deadline was not reasonably practicable. The unfair dismissal claim was therefore dismissed for want of jurisdiction.