Mr I Povse v Innseagan House Hotel Limited and 1 other — 2018

The tribunal heard a preliminary issue on time bar. The claimant’s ET1, presented on 8 December 2017, advanced claims of automatically unfair dismissal for protected disclosure and/or asserting a statutory right, unauthorised deductions from wages / national minimum wage, unpaid accrued annual leave, failure to provide a written statement of particulars, and failure to provide itemised pay statements. The relevant limitation periods were the normal three-month time limits, subject to ACAS early conciliation and any statutory exceptions.

The central factual issue was the effective date of termination. The claimant said his employment ended on 25 July 2017. The respondents said it ended on 17 July 2017. The tribunal preferred the respondents’ evidence, describing it as clear, consistent and corroborated, whereas the claimant’s account was inconsistent and contradicted by his earlier email of 1 February 2018, in which he stated that termination of employment was on 17 July 2017. The tribunal found that he probably gave a week’s notice between 13 and 15 July 2017, left the site on 17 July 2017, and on that date indicated by his conduct that he resigned with immediate effect.

On that basis, time began to run on 17 July 2017 for all claims. The ACAS early conciliation notification was started on 19 October 2017, more than three months later, so it did not extend the limitation period. The tribunal also found that the last deduction in any series, and the latest date on which any payment for untaken annual leave should have been made, was 17 July 2017. Because the claim form was not presented until 8 December 2017 and the claimant did not argue that it had not been reasonably practicable to present the claims in time, all claims were dismissed for want of jurisdiction.