Time limits

Applications to employment tribunals should normally be presented within the time limit laid down in the legislation. In most cases this is three months from the date of the action complained of. However, there can be extensions where it would not have been reasonably practicable to present the claim in time. The EAT has ruled that an employee who presented her application late could still have the claim heard taking account of the following facts:

* part of her claim related to the payment of a bonus and for some time after her employment had ended she had accepted her employer's assurance that this would be paid;

* she was on maternity leave, had recently given birth to a child who was ill and was therefore, in the words of the EAT "distracted by her baby being unwell"; and

* once a colleague told her that she should submit her tribunal claim she did so within a relatively short period of time.

(Langley-Di Guiseppe v Yamaichi (Europe) International 248/99)