Every Second Counts!

15th July 2008

As most employers are aware Employment Tribunals apply the statutory time limits for presenting a claim rigidly. But is a delay of a mere 88 seconds too late for a claim to be accepted? The Court of Appeal has recently held that it is and stated that there is "no grey area for claims which are only a bit out of time".

The claimant, Mr Beasley, worked for the National Grid and was dismissed for misconduct with effect from 7 February 2006. Therefore, any claim for unfair dismissal had to be presented to the Employment Tribunal by midnight on 6 May 2006, to comply with the statutory time limits i.e. within 3 months of the date of dismissal. Mr Beasley emailed his ET1 to the Tribunal at 00.01.28 on Sunday 7th May 2006. Following a Pre- Hearing Review, which rejected his claim, the Employment Tribunal, explained that:

"The reason for the rejection of the claim is that it was sent and received out of time. It was reasonably practicable to have sent the claim in time. The difference between 1.5 minutes and 1.5 hours makes no difference as the claim could never have been received in time, given that it was only successfully sent by the claimant on 7 May 2006".

These strict statutory limits were described by Lord Justice Tuckey as a "harsh regime", but they exist for a good policy reasons.

The 88 second question

The 88 second question has been argued in the courts for over 2 years; only to have the initial views of the Employment Tribunal reiterated. In that time the parties would have borne the expense of a hearing in the Employment Tribunal, the EAT (and a renewed application) and also a hearing in the Court of Appeal. It has not been reported if costs were awarded against Mr Beasley, nor whether he funded the litigation himself, or if, for example, he had the benefit of legal expenses insurance. The legal costs (and management time) no doubt have been exorbitantly high, and it should stand as a reminder to potential Claimants (and Respondents, when submitting their ET3 forms) that care should be taken to adhere to the strict time regime, and they should seek legal advice within good time.