4. TIME LIMITS

Tribunal claims must be issued within a set time limit, which is specified in the relevant statute. A claim is “issued” once it has been presented at the tribunal office. If a claim is not issued before the end of the time limit, it will be out of time and will not normally be allowed to proceed (see — Extension of time limit below).

The time limit for most claims is three months. Time runs from the date of the act (or failure to act) that the claim concerns. For example, where the claim is about a dismissal, time may well run from the date that the employment is terminated.

In some cases, where the act or failure continues over a period of time, the time limit begins to run from the latest of these acts or failures. In this way an event that occurred more than three months before the claim was lodged (provided it was part of a continuing situation) can form part of a complaint to a tribunal (for example, in a situation where there has been an unlawful deduction of wages). If an employer unlawfully withdraws a shift allowance without consent and fails to pay it for four consecutive months, a worker could bring a claim within three months of the last deduction but still recover payment for the whole four-month period.

The time limit for claiming a redundancy payment is six months from the date that the employment is terminated. But this relates to the redundancy payment only — if the claim is that the redundancy itself was unfair (for example, if the selection criteria were unfairly applied or the pool for selection was incomplete), this is a claim for unfair dismissal so the time limit is three months.

A claim for equal pay also has a time limit in a standard case of six months from the end of the relevant employment, but it can be brought at any time while the claimant is working in that job. Although the time limit in the tribunal is six months, claims can be brought in the High Court up to six years after the event.

Claims for interim relief must be brought within seven days of the date that the employment is terminated. This applies to certain types of unfair dismissal claims where the employee was dismissed on grounds that are automatically unfair, such as trade union activities or health and safety duties. If successful, the employer will have to continue to pay the claimant “interim relief” (in other words, their usual pay) until the unfair dismissal claim has been heard.