Tribunal time limits and Acas Early Conciliation 




Tribunal time limits are affected by Acas EC in the following way: The Acas EC Notification Form must be submitted within the normal time limit for a tribunal claim (usually three months). This “stops the clock” on that time period. The clock will restart, that is, time will start running again, as soon as Acas supplies the EC Certificate to the claimant. If, at that stage, there is less than one month left in which to issue the tribunal claim, the claimant gets a minimum of one month in which to take this step (Luton Borough Council v Haque [2018] UKEAT/0180/17/JOJ). If the deadline is missed, the claim will be out of time and is likely to be dismissed. 




It is important to take care only to apply for Acas EC once in the same dispute. If Acas mistakenly issues a second EC certificate for the same matter, that second certificate has no legal effect, including no effect on the limitation period. It will be as if the second EC certificate was never issued (HMRC v Garau [2017] UKEAT/0348/16/2403). 



The rules allow an employer to apply for Acas EC where a potential claimant has not already submitted an Acas EC Notification Form. The most important point to note here is that if an employer initiates Acas EC, there is no stopping of the clock and no extension of the time limit. Although a claimant does not have to submit an Acas EC Notification Form if they can prove that their employer has already started Acas EC, in reality it is always better to be on the safe side and to submit a Form during the three-month time period. 


Take care not to apply for Acas EC prematurely. Take advice if in doubt. If the EC Notification Form is submitted to Acas before any claim has come into existence (for example, before the dismissal in a claim of unfair or discriminatory dismissal), there will be no extension of time in which to bring the claim:


Acas EC also applies to claims against insolvent employers. Claimants in this situation should speak to their rep (see also Chapter 11: Redundancy payments and insolvency).