Mr James Murdoch v (1) Vary Recruitment Limited — 2019

The tribunal held a public preliminary hearing on time bar. Mr Murdoch appeared in person. Vary Recruitment Limited resisted the claim and said he was not its employee; Hub Logic Limited did not lodge an ET3. The tribunal also noted that it was not appropriate to issue default judgment against Hub Logic while the proper identity of the claimant's employer remained in dispute.

The tribunal accepted the claimant's evidence that, if he was an employee of Vary Recruitment Limited, the effective date of termination was 29 October 2018. It found that ACAS early conciliation had been notified on 25 January 2019 through Dave Roberts of Magenta Moon, that the first EC certificate was issued on 1 February 2019, and that the ET1 was not presented until 15 March 2019. Applying section 111 and section 207B of the Employment Rights Act 1996, and the authorities it cited on reasonable practicability and limitation, the tribunal held that the unfair dismissal, breach of contract, unlawful deduction from wages, and holiday pay complaints were presented out of time and dismissed those parts of the claim.

On the claimant's evidence, the tribunal was not satisfied that it was not reasonably practicable to present the ET1 within the statutory period, or that presentation on 15 March 2019 was within a further reasonable period. It accepted that he had been dealing with his mother's illness and death and had relied on Mr Roberts to handle ACAS communications, but held that those matters did not explain the delay sufficiently. The redundancy payment claim was different: the tribunal held that it was not time-barred because the six-month time limit had been met, and ordered that that part of the claim should proceed to a further public preliminary hearing on the employer-liability issue.