Pre-resignation grievance did extend time

The EAT has ruled that a grievance relating to constructive dismissal will comply with the statutory grievance procedures, even if it is raised before the resignation takes effect.

The ruling came in the case of Mr Colbourne, an environmental enforcement officer who went on a long period of sick leave. Turning up for a return-to-work meeting, he found that his desk had been taken over by someone else, and raised a formal grievance.

Colbourne resigned at the subsequent grievance hearing and later submitted a claim for constructive dismissal. The claim was brought more than three months after the date that his employment had ended, and was therefore outside the normal time limit, but he argued that it was still valid as his written grievance had triggered the three-month extension to the time limit.

However, his former employer argued that this could not be the case; the time limit had not even started running when he submitted his grievance, it said, as he had not resigned at that point.

In a case of constructive dismissal, the EAT said, the employee needs to complain only about the employer's conduct that led to their resignation - not about the constructive dismissal itself. It did not matter that Colbourne's grievance was submitted before his employment ended, the EAT said, as the statutory provisions are concerned only with claims submitted after the end of the time limit. The time limit had been extended by the grievance, and Colbourne's claim had been submitted in time.

LB Lewisham v Colbourne EAT/0339/06