Claimant v Express Buffet Ltd — 2023

The claimant worked for the respondent's buffet-style Indian restaurant as a kitchen steward from around August 2019 and was paid £300 per week. He had no written contract. The tribunal found that the employment ended on 13 March 2020 when the restaurant closed at the start of the first Covid lockdown, and it did not accept the claimant's case that the employment continued until July or August 2021.

On that finding, the claimant did not have the two years' qualifying service needed for unfair dismissal or redundancy pay. The tribunal also held that the claims for unlawful deduction of wages, holiday pay and breach of contract were considerably out of time, whichever end date was considered, and referred to section 23 ERA 1996, section 111(3) ERA 1996, section 30 Working Time Regulations 1998 and section 7 of the Employment Tribunal Extension of Jurisdiction (Scotland) Order 1994.

The tribunal accepted that Covid restrictions made access to advice more difficult, but was not satisfied that it was not reasonably practicable to bring the claims in time or that they were presented within a reasonable period thereafter. It noted that the claimant had contacted the DWP and the CAB and had pursued bankruptcy assistance in 2021, but did not first contact ACAS until January 2022 and did not present the claim until 6 April 2022. The tribunal therefore held that it had no jurisdiction to consider any of the claims and made no monetary award.