If the claim is one that can be brought to the Employment Tribunal, it must in most cases be brought within three months of the date of dismissal.
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The Employment Tribunal has the discretion to extend time if the employee can show that it was not reasonably practicable to present the claim within the three-month period.
In addition, a three-month extension of time is automatically granted if:
- the statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedure applies and the employee reasonably believes, at the time the normal time limit expires, that the employer is following a dismissal or disciplinary procedure (see question 11); or
- The stautory grievance procedure applies and:
- The employee presents a complaint to the Tribunal within the normal time limit but either the employee has not complied with the requirement to set out in writing the basis for the employee's complaint and sent a copy of it to the employer (the step 1 statement) or the employee has complied but has not waited the required 28 days before presenting their complaint to the tribunal; or
- the employee has presented a complaint to the tribunal after the expiry of the normal time limit, but has also sent the step 1 statement initiating the statutory grievance procedures.
This could happen where the employer is still investigating, or has not notified the employee of the result of any appeal hearing within the normal three-month time limit.
The Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) has ruled that the three-month extension to the time limit begins on the day after the initial three months ends - so that a claim that is filed on 20 December is still in time, though it relates to a resignation on grounds of constructive dismissal that was originally presented on 20 June.
The EAT has also broadened the definition of grievance to cover virtually any form of written complaint: it need not include the word 'grievance' (it can even expressly say that it is not a grievance), nor come direct from the complainant - it could come from someone (for example, a solicitor) acting on his or her behalf, or it can be a manager's notes of a meeting at which the employee expressed their grievance.
If the claim is one that can be brought in the civil courts (ie breach of contract - see question one), an employee has six years to claim. The court has discretion to extend time in some situations.
Time can be extended in discrimination cases, when to do so would be 'just and equitable'. The EAT has also ruled that Tribunals have discretion to allow discrimination cases to proceed, even though the grievances to which they relate were not submitted until after the end of the initial three-month period - provided they were submitted within one month of the end of that time.
