THE INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNALS

CASE REF:	2366/06

CLAIMANT:			Alan Cecil Wallace

RESPONDENTS:		1.	Bridge Water Academy
				2.	Department for Employment & Learning

DECISION ON A PRE-HEARING REVIEW
The decision of the tribunal is that it does not have jurisdiction to entertain the claimant’s complaint in view of Article 55 of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 in relation to the time limit for presenting the claim.

Constitution of Tribunal:
Chairman (sitting alone):		Ms A Crooke

Appearances:
The claimant did not appear.
The first-named respondent did not appear.
The second-named respondent was represented by Mrs K Dobbin, of Redundancy Payments Branch.

Sources of evidence

1.	The claim of the claimant and the response of the respondent were considered.

2.	The legal issue arising from Article 55 of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996:-

“Was the claimant’s claim brought within three months beginning with the date upon which the deduction was made and, if not, was it not reasonably practicable for it to be made within that time.”

Facts found

3.	The claimant was an Art Teacher with the first-named respondent and was not paid for July 2004 and August 2004.

4.	The claimant claimed these payments from the second-named respondent but his claim was rejected by the second-named respondent on 7 July 2006.  His claim to the tribunal was presented on 31 October 2006.

Conclusions

5.	The provisions of Article 55 make it plain that in respect of this type of claim, time runs from the date of failure to pay.  Even if the time ran from the date of the rejection by the second-named respondent, the claimant’s claim is outside the time limit of three months.

6.	As the claimant did not appear to explain why it would not have been reasonably practicable to present his claim within the three months, the tribunal has no alternative but to dismiss the claim.

Chairman:

Date and place of hearing:	11 May 2007, Belfast

Date decision recorded in register and issued to parties: