Tribunal Time Limits
The Employment Appeals Tribunal has handed down its decision in Northamptonshire County Council v Entwhistle. This case is authority for the proposal that it is reasonably practicable for the employee to file their unfair dismissal claim within the usual time allowed (currently three months from the effective date of termination) even though their employer has advised them, in error, that the time limit for claiming unfair dismissal ran from the date the employee’s appeal was rejected. The reason for this being that the employee’s solicitor should have known the limitation date in which to bring an unfair dismissal claim and therefore the solicitor should have filed the claim in time.
This means that the decisions in Dedman v British Building and Engineering Appliances Ltd [1974] ICR 53 and Marks & Spencer PLC v Williams-Ryan [2008] ICR 193 were correct. Unless the adviser was actually misled in relation to the correct limitation date due to inaccurate information from the employer, the employee’s only remedy was to claim damages by bringing a negligence claim against his advisor.
