Claimant v Mr Wayne Albert Saunders T/a Domino Menswear — 2019

The claimant brought three complaints: failure to pay notice on termination, accrued but unpaid holiday pay, and a statutory redundancy payment under section 163 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. This judgment dealt only with the first two complaints. The tribunal noted that all three complaints appeared potentially out of time, and decided to determine the jurisdiction issue for the notice and holiday pay claims, while leaving the redundancy payment complaint to be dealt with later because different time-limit considerations applied to that claim.

The claimant gave evidence that his last day of work was 24 December 2017. He said that after going to the Citizens Advice Bureau and ACAS, he received an early conciliation certificate in February or March 2018, and then went back to ACAS around March 2018. He accepted that he was told about the time limits for bringing a tribunal claim, and he also had internet access between then and August 2018, when the claim was presented. The tribunal accepted his evidence that he was hoping the matter could be resolved through the Insolvency Service or with ACAS, but he did not issue the claim until 3 August 2018.

Applying the law on time limits, the tribunal held that both claims should have been brought within three months, allowing for any extension under the early conciliation process. It noted that a claim can still proceed if it was not reasonably practicable to present it in time and it is then presented within such further period as is reasonable, but the burden was on the claimant to establish that position. The tribunal found that it was reasonably practicable for the claimant to have presented the claims in time, because he knew about the time limits and there was no reason why he could not have filed once Citizens Advice Bureau told him in March to proceed to the employment tribunal.

The result was that the tribunal had no jurisdiction to hear the claims for breach of contract (failure to pay notice) and accrued holiday pay, and both were struck out. The statutory redundancy payment claim remained a live issue and was not determined in this judgment.