Ms Caldwell & others v Housing Association Limited — 2020

This was a preliminary hearing on the respondent's time-limit objection to three claims under s.145B TULRCA. The claimants said the respondent had made unlawful inducements by letters dated 18 September 2019 and 13 December 2019. The respondent accepted the September letters were offers for s.145B purposes, but argued the December letters were not offers and so the claims were out of time. The claimants said the December letters were the last of a series of similar offers and the complaints were therefore in time under s.145C.

The tribunal found that the December 2019 letters were offers for the purposes of s.145B. It held that contracts of employment require mutual agreement to vary and that, where express agreement was not obtained after the September letters, the respondent sought to impose the change unilaterally in December. Because binding change would still require implied agreement, the December letters were treated as offers to vary the contract. The tribunal also held that there was nothing in s.145B that required a financial inducement or incentive for a valid offer.

The tribunal found that the September and December letters formed a series of similar offers, with 13 December 2019 being the date of the last offer in that series. The claim forms were presented on 28 January 2020, after Acas early conciliation, and were therefore within the three-month period in s.145C(1)(a). The tribunal accordingly held that it had jurisdiction to consider the claims and that the matters would proceed to a hearing on the merits.