Yesterday I posted on the issue of claimants mistaking knowledge that they are going to be dismissed with the effective date of termination when the right to make an unfair dismissal (normally) arises. It is a mistake that can, and has, deprived many claimant of the opportunity to challenging the fairness of their dismissals.

A recent judgment of the Employment Appeal Tribunal complicates this even further in respect to when the ACAS Early Conciliation ‘stop the clock’ provisions take effect. The basic principle in ACAS Early Conciliation is so long has started in the relevant limitation period (within three months normally) that when conciliation starts the time limit stops running and does not start until conciliation ends (section 207B Employment Rights Act 1996). There are also rules that the time limit can be extended further if a claimant is left with less than a month to file an ET claim at the end of the conciliation period.

In Raison v DF Capital Bank Ltd [2025] EAT 86 the claimant sought to make an unfair dismissal complaint against her employers. The claimant was dismissed on 17 February 2023. However, anticipating the dismissal the claimant began ACAS early conciliation on 11 February 2023 (6 days before the dismissal) and early conciliation ended on 28 February. The issue in the appeal was whether the stop the clock provisions applied to the whole period (11 to 28 2023) or just the period from the dismissal date (17 to 28 February 2023). If the former applied the claim was in time, if the latter the claim was out of time and at risk of being dismissed.

The EAT adopted the latter position. The claimant could not rely on the period of Early Conciliation from 11 February to 17 February 2026 to extend the time limit to make her unfair dismissal claim. As a result the EAT upheld the ET’s decision that the unfair dismissal should be dismissed because it was lodged out of time.

Like the situation in Jumping the Gun I, this case is a sad reminder of the risks of taking steps to prematurely initiate employment tribunal litigation as this can backfire later on. In this case the situation could have been avoided if the risk about the first 6 days of Early Conciliation had been identified and the claim date pushed forward by at least the same number of days.

I am not convinced the EAT’s decision here is the correct one, but that is more related to the reasonably practicable time limit point but the case is helpful in emphasising that:

  • ACAS Early Conciliation for an unfair dismissal should not be commenced until the legal right has been infringed (the dismissal has happened)
  • If there is any doubt about whether the stop the clock provisions will apply to all the conciliation period then make sure the claim is brought as early as possible to mitigate or remove that risk.