How long do I have to file my employment tribunal claim?
As a lawyer who has only acted for employees for a year or so now – this question strikes fear in my heart.
Knowing the time limit for filing your employment tribunal claim is the first major hurdle that every employee and claimant lawyer has to face.
This is actually much more complicated and stressful for everyone involved than it should be.
Why is it so complicated? Two main reasons:
The time limit for bringing a claim differs depending on what type of claim you are bringing (for example, if you are bringing a claim for dismissal – it is 3 months from the “effective date of termination” whereas if you are bringing a claim for failure to pay statutory redundancy pay it is 6 months from the “relevant date”). What does “effective date of termination” and “relevant date” mean?? That is a whole other rabbit hole.
The ACAS early conciliation period “stops the clock” on the time limit for bringing the claim to give both sides the chance to settle the claim before the employee brings their claim. The time limit “clock” only restarts once the early conciliation period ends.
Why is it so stressful?
One main reason. The consequences of missing the deadline are huge. If you miss the deadline for filing your employment tribunal claim – it is pretty much impossible to get the time limit extended. For the Tribunal to let you get away with missing a time limit for filing your claim, you basically need to have been in hospital in a coma or have another serious illness that means you couldn’t instruct a lawyer.
If your head is spinning already and you don’t want to read any further, the team at Litigation Friend has designed a handy tech tool for employees who have been dismissed to work out when the deadline for filing their employment tribunal claim is. You can access it here
In case you want to understand a bit more about how the process works. Here goes…
Five pieces of information
To work out the time limit for filing your employment tribunal claim, you need five pieces of information.
BEFORE I tell you what these 5 pieces of information are – you will only have all 5 pieces of information once you have completed the ACAS process i.e. received a “certificate” from ACAS which looks like this:
Once you have received this certificate you can work out the time limit for bringing a claim by gathering these five pieces of information:
What type of claim are you bringing? If you are not sure what types of claim you may have against your employer – try our handy tech tool “Do I have a claim” here
How long do you have to bring the claim in 1. above? (e.g. unfair dismissal = 3 months).
When does the clock start running for your claim? (e.g. for unfair dismissal or a discrimination dismissal it is the dismissal date). Note - this is NOT the date you were given notice but the date your employment ENDED (i.e. you stopped getting paid).
What is the date you started off the ACAS process? This can be found on your ACAS certificate and is the date that follows the words “Date of receipt by ACAS of the EC notification”. You can find this date in the example certificate above circled in red. This is known as “Day A”.
What is the date the ACAS process ended? This can be found on your ACAS certificate and is the date that follows the words “Date of issue by ACAS of this Certificate”. You can find this date in the example certificate above circled in blue. This is known as “Day B”.
NOW for the maths part:
If you’ve made it this far but can’t go on, just a reminder of our handy tech tool to work out when the deadline for filing your employment tribunal claim is (only applies to dismissals). You can access it here
Back to the maths:
You first work out what the time limit would be if there was no ACAS period. You do this by starting with the date in 3. above and adding the time limit for bringing the claim in 2. above. So for example – if you were dismissed on 15 January 2021 – the original time limit for bringing your claim would be 14 April 2021.
ACAS operates to “stop the clock” on your time limit so you can then work out the length of the ACAS period. You calculate the length of the ACAS period by starting with the day after Day A and ending on Day B. For example, if Day A is 20 January 2021 and Day B is 15 February 2021, the length of your ACAS period is 26 days.
The next step is to work out the time limit by adding the ACAS period to the original time limit = 14 April 2021 plus 26 days = 10 May 2021. This is now known as the “Stop the clock” time limit.
The final step to take is ask yourself a question: “Does the “stop the clock” time limit expire during the period between Day A (4. Above) and Day B (5. Above) plus 1 month? If the answer is “no” the “stop the clock” time limit applies. If the answer is “yes” the time limit that applies is Day B (5. Above) plus one month (known as the “plus one month” time limit. If the answer is “no”, the “stop the clock” time limit applies.
SIMPLES…
Only joking. It’s really complicated (even for a lawyer). If you want to skip the headache above, use our time limit calculator
Disclaimer: The above guide is for legal information and self-help. The information provided above is provided for your private use and does not constitute legal advice from qualified lawyers. We cannot guarantee that the legal information is correct, current or up-to-date, nor suitable for every situation.
Tara Grossman[email protected]
