Time limits for tribunal claim

The basic time limit

For most employment tribunal claims in England and Wales you have three months minus one day to act. The clock runs from the date the thing you are complaining about happened. Common starting points are:

The effective date of termination if you are complaining about dismissal (unfair dismissal, or being dismissed from a student job).

The date of the act you say was discriminatory, or the date wages or holiday pay should have been paid but were not.

The date of the last in a series of linked payments or acts if the problem was continuing rather than a one-off.

A small number of claims carry a longer limit of six months minus one day, for example a statutory redundancy payment claim and an equal pay claim. Most ordinary claims a student worker would bring, such as unpaid wages, unlawful deductions, holiday pay, unfair dismissal or discrimination, fall under the three months minus one day rule.

You must contact Acas first

Before you can lodge a tribunal claim you must notify Acas and go through early conciliation, and you must do this within your normal time limit. In practice this means you should start Acas early conciliation before the three month (minus one day) deadline expires, not on the day you eventually want to file at the tribunal.

Early conciliation is a free process where an Acas conciliator speaks separately to you and the employer to try to reach a settlement. It is voluntary in the sense that you do not have to reach an agreement, but notifying Acas is a mandatory step before claiming.

How Acas conciliation affects the deadline

Notifying Acas within your time limit pauses (stops) the clock while early conciliation is ongoing. The paused period does not count towards your three months. When conciliation ends, Acas issues an early conciliation certificate.

After you receive the certificate two things can happen, and whichever gives you more time applies:

1. The original time limit resumes for whatever was left when you notified Acas; or

2. If little or no time was left, you are given at least one month from the date you receive the certificate to lodge your tribunal claim.

So the earliest safe approach is to contact Acas well before the deadline, keep a note of the day you notified them and the day the certificate is issued, and then calculate carefully.

Working out your exact deadline

Because the stop-the-clock rules can be fiddly, the safest method is:

1. Identify the date the problem happened (for example the last day of your job or the date wages were due).

2. Count three months forward and take off one day. That is your provisional deadline.

3. Note the day you notify Acas. The days between notification and the certificate date do not count.

4. When you get the certificate, either add back the days that were left on the original clock, or use the one month from the certificate rule if that is later.

If in doubt, treat the earlier calculation as your deadline. Do not leave it to the last day, because miscalculating the pause can mean a claim is out of time.

Does your student job change anything

The fact that the job is a student job does not by itself alter the time limits. What matters is your employment status. Most people in a student job are either employees or workers. Workers as well as employees can bring claims for unpaid wages, unlawful deductions, holiday pay under the Working Time Regulations, discrimination and whistleblowing. Only employees, generally with two years continuous service, can bring ordinary unfair dismissal, so if the claim is about being sacked from a short student job, you may not qualify for unfair dismissal but may still have other claims such as unpaid wages or discrimination, which do not need any qualifying period. Discrimination claims have no minimum service requirement at all.

Identifying which claim you actually have matters, because it determines both whether you can bring it and which time limit applies.

If you are already out of time

Tribunals can sometimes extend time, but the tests are strict and differ by claim type. For unfair dismissal and most unpaid wages type claims the test is whether it was not reasonably practicable to bring the claim in time and whether you then acted within a reasonable further period. For discrimination claims the test is whether it is just and equitable to extend, which is somewhat broader but still not guaranteed. Extensions are the exception, not the norm, so you should assume the deadline is firm.

Practical next steps

1. Write down the key date the problem happened and calculate three months minus one day from it now.

2. Gather your evidence, such as your contract or offer, payslips, rotas, emails and any dismissal message.

3. Notify Acas early conciliation as soon as possible and well before the deadline, keeping a record of the notification and certificate dates.

4. Use early conciliation to try to resolve the dispute without a hearing, since settlement is often faster, cheaper and less stressful.

5. If it does not resolve, lodge the ET1 claim form before your recalculated deadline.

Key missing facts

The precise deadline depends on details you have not given: the exact date the problem happened, whether you are complaining about dismissal, unpaid wages, holiday pay or discrimination, whether you were an employee or a worker, and how long you worked there. If you tell me what the complaint is and the relevant dates, I can help you work out the specific deadline and which time limit applies.