Another Employment Appeal Tribunal case has looked at (and come to the same result as) the case last month examining when an extension of time in unfair dismissal cases will be given despite the fact that no appeal is pending.

This is the second case dealing with the tactic on behalf of employers of waiting until the last possible moment before the three month deadline to give an appeal decision turning down an appeal against unfair dismissal. The tactic works by effectively not leaving the employee enough time to get an appeal in before the three month deadline is passed (usually at midnight on that particular day).

In this case the employer turned down the employee’s appeal against unfair dismissal at 6pm on the last day of the three month period. This meant that the employee had four hours in which to enter a Tribunal claim.

In these circumstances the EAT decided that it was not reasonably practicable for the employee to get the claim in on time and therefore they should benefit from the three month extension.

It is always interesting how Tribunals will try to give effect to the spirit of the law rather than the letter of it (although some of my clients will say that this only happens when the employee is being protected).