Mr Cliff Mighton v St Mungo Community Housing Association — 2025

Employment Judge Rao heard this matter at the London East Hearing Centre by CVP on 12 December 2025. The claimant Mr Cliff Mighton appeared in person; the respondent (St Mungo Community Housing Association) was represented by Ms G Nicholls of counsel, instructed by Ashfords LLP. The 1-hour final hearing was converted to a preliminary hearing in public to address time limit and strike-out issues.

The claim concerned a single deduction of £268.57 from the claimant's payslip dated 30 November 2014; the claimant filed the claim on 24 July 2025 and contended for an aggregated sum of £34,108.39 on the basis of repeated monthly deductions. Applying section 23 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and the Palmer / Lowri Beck line of authority, the Judge found it was reasonably practicable for the claimant to have brought the claim within the time limit of 1 March 2015 and that he had not done so within a reasonable period thereafter; accordingly the Tribunal had no jurisdiction and the complaint was dismissed. The Judge also found there had been no series of deductions and that section 23(4A) ERA would in any event preclude consideration of deductions made before the two-year backstop.

In the alternative, the Judge held that the deduction represented an excepted statutory deduction for strike action under section 14(5) ERA 1996, following Sunderland Polytechnic v Evans [1993] IRLR 196, with no reasonable prospect of success, and so the claim was struck out under rule 38(1)(a) of the Employment Tribunal Procedure Rules 2024.