Looking around the world, employment fundamentals often remain the same. Northamptonshire in England is the country of our latest case review. In this piece, the case focuses on an unfair dismissal claimwhere an employer wrongly advised a dismissed employee of the last date on which the employee could bring a claim for unfair dismissal. The Employment Appeal Tribunal found that despite this misleading information, the employee was too late to pursue his claim in the case of Northamptonshire County Council -v- Entwhistle [2010] IRLR 740.
The claimant was dismissed by the Northamptonshire County Council for gross misconduct on 13 November 2008. The claimant decided to appeal the Council’s decision which was eventually concluded on 20 March 2009. The claimant was then informed in writing that his appeal had been unsuccessful and that the decision was upheld. In this letter, the Council took the unusual step of informing the claimant of the last date on which he could present an unfair dismissal complaint to the Employment Tribunal.
The claimant had been following the Council’s internal procedure by appealing against their decision to dismiss him; under the old statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedures (which applied at the time) the usual three-month time limit for bringing a claim was extended by three months. However, the employer did not inform the employee that he had six months from the date of dismissal to bring a claim forward. The Council mistakenly informed him that he had three months from receipt of the Council’s appeal decision to bring a claim (27 June 2009).
The claimant instructed solicitors and presented an unfair dismissal claim to the EATon 27 May 2009. The Council argued that it was out of time, but the Tribunal allowed the claim to proceed, finding that the claimant had brought his claim within a reasonable period and that it had not been reasonably practicable for the claimant to bring his claim in time in view of the Council’s misleading information.
Despite the Council’s mistake, the EAT decided that the claimant’s solicitor should have picked up the mistake and filed the claim on time.
This is an unusual case in view of the fact that the employer actually informed the dismissed employee of the time limit to bring a claim against them. There is no obligation on employers to do this and it is certainly not recommended.
This case highlights that it is important to comply with Employment Tribunal time limits as the grounds on which they can be extended is very limited. The current time limit for submitting a claim to the EAT in relation to the Unfair Dismissals Acts is 6 months of the date the employment ended. The Tribunal has discretion to extend this time limit to 12 months, but only in exceptional circumstances
Employers should seek advice from Peninsula Business Services in advance of taking any disciplinary action in the workplace and in advance of engaging a domestic worker. Please phone the 24 Hour Advice Service on 01 8555050 and one of our experienced advisors will be happy to assist.
