Mr A Fraser v EE Limited — 2023

The claimant brought a complaint of unfair dismissal under section 94 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, alleging that he had been dismissed within section 95(1)(c), commonly referred to as constructive dismissal. He accepted at the hearing that the claim had been lodged out of time, so the issue was whether the Tribunal should exercise its discretion to hear it out of time.

The Tribunal found that the effective date of termination was 25 March 2022, meaning the normal time limit expired on 24 June 2022. ACAS Early Conciliation was not started until 20 January 2023 and the ET1 was presented on 3 February 2023. The claimant had known there was a three-month time limit and accepted that it had been possible to lodge the claim in time. His explanation was that he was waiting for a full response to a data subject access request, but the Tribunal found this did not make it not reasonably practicable to present the claim in time.

The Tribunal also considered the further delay after the claimant received the DSAR response on 30 June 2022. It found that waiting a further seven to eight months while an internal grievance process continued was not a reasonable further period. The Tribunal therefore did not exercise its discretion to hear the claim out of time and dismissed it for lack of jurisdiction.