Employment Tribunals

Case: 1800538/2019 1 EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS Claimant: Mr E Baratang Respondent: Harvard Technology Limited (In Administration) AT A HEARING Heard at: Leeds On: 24th February 2020 Before: Employment Judge Lancaster Representation Claimant: Did not attend but submitted written representations Respondent: No appearance entered and did not attend JUDGMENT 1. The claim was presented on 27th September 2019, which was outside the 3-month period from 10th December 2018. It was reasonably practicable to have submitted the claim in time by 9th March 2019, and in any event, it was not presented within a reasonable time after that date. 2. The claim for a protective award is dismissed. REASONS 1. The claim was originally submitted on 5th February 2019, which would have been in time. 2. On the Claim Form it was wrongly stated that ACAS did not have power to conciliate. The only reason that the Claimant on the claim form “ wasn’t able to include my ACAS certificate number” (as was later asserted on 27th September 2019) was in reality because he had not properly applied for one. 3. The claim was therefore rejected because the Claimant did not at that time have an ACAS Early Conciliation certificate. Notification of rejection was sent on 13th March 2019, by which time the 3 month time limit up to 9th March 2019 had expired. 4. On that same date, 13th March 2019, the Claimant commenced early conciliation and a certificate was issued dated 28th March 2019. 5. The certificate number was not provided to the Tribunal until 27th September 2019 and on that date, the mistake in the original claim having now been rectified, it was accepted. So 27th September 2019 is, therefore, the date when the claim was in fact presented, more than 6 months out of time. Case: 1800538/2019 2 6. The Claimant has stated in written representations on 16th November 2019 that he “didn’t notice that the Early Conciliation certificate has been sent to me to be able to continue with my claim. As soon as I realised I sent it immediately.” 7. Whilst I may have been sympathetic had the Claimant in fact reacted promptly to the Tribunal’s delayed notification of rejection, I cannot accept that it was not then reasonably practicable to have forwarded the certificate until 6 months later, where the approach to ACAs had only ever been initiated in response to the Tribunal’s communication of 13th March and with a view to rectifying the Claimant’s earlier mistake. 8. By delaying the presentation of a valid claim with an early Conciliation number until 27th September 2019 the Claimant did not act reasonably promptly. EMPLOYMENT JUDGE LANCASTER DATE 24th February 2020 Public access to employment tribunal decisions Judgments and reasons for the judgments are published, in full, online at www.gov.uk/employment-tribunaldecisions shortly after a copy has been sent to the claimant(s) and respondent(s) in a case.