Claim for unlawful deduction of wages was re-admitted to Employment Tribunal although originally ruled out of time.

The Claimant was employed by the Respondent as a plant operator from 3 August 2020 until his termination on 9 September 2020. Upon termination the Claimant disputed the non-payment of his 1-month notice pay and his accrued holiday entitlement. The employment tribunal claim was lodged on 5 February 2021, but deemed out of time, concluding that the time limit began on the date of the Claimant’s termination of employment.

The EAT overturned the tribunal’s decision on appeal, on the basis that the tribunal erred in law by starting the time limit from the Claimant’s termination date. Since the claim was for unlawful deduction of wages, section 23(2) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 stipulates that the three-month time limit should begin from the date of payment of the wages from which the alleged deductions were made. The parties agreed that the last payment to the Claimant was made on 18 September 2020. Therefore, the time limit for this claim should have initiated from this date and not upon termination. The EAT noted that there was some ambiguity with the Claimant’s claim form, as it did not make explicit reference to an unlawful deductions of wages claim. However, the original judge had a duty to address the ambiguities with the Claimant but proceeded to dismiss in his absence. As the time limit for the Claimant’s claims regarding the unlawful deductions began on 18 September 2020, the date when he contacted ACAS, 16 December 2020, was in fact within the prescribed time limit. Therefore, the EAT granted the appeal and the claim is to be remitted to the employment tribunal to determine whether the sums claimed are due to the claimant or not.

What does this tell us?

It is important to remember that each type of employment tribunal claim has time limits for the complaint to be lodged and qualifying periods of employment. In the majority of cases the time limit starts from the date the ‘problem’ occurred. For example, here it was the date in which the Claimant wasn’t paid correctly. This time limit differs from other claims like unfair dismissal where the time limit starts from the ‘effective date of termination’ or discrimination where it starts from the last act of discrimination. Working out time limits can be quite complex and as seen above even the tribunal can get it wrong.