Claimant v Steve Porter Transport Limited (In Administration)
Outcome
Individual claims
Claim against R1 struck out for being out of time under section 189(5) TULRCA. Claimants failed to prove it was not reasonably practicable to present the claim by 26 December 2023. No explanation given for inserting wrong ACAS certificate number in original claim form.
Claim against R2 (Secretary of State) under section 182 ERA dismissed because no protective award had been made by a tribunal, therefore no 'debt' existed to which Part XII ERA applied. R2 was not the employer under TULRCA and had no direct liability.
Facts
48 claimants brought collective redundancy consultation claims against their employer, Steve Porter Transport Ltd (in administration), and the Secretary of State. All were dismissed on 25 September 2023. The original claim form dated 24 December 2023 was rejected because it contained incorrect ACAS early conciliation certificate numbers. The claim was re-presented on 25 March 2024 with the correct certificate. 44 witness statements were provided but none addressed why the wrong certificate numbers were initially used or why it was not reasonably practicable to present the claim correctly within the time limit.
Decision
The tribunal dismissed all claims. Claims against R1 were struck out as out of time under section 189(5) TULRCA because claimants failed to prove it was not reasonably practicable to present the claim by 26 December 2023. Claims against the Secretary of State under section 182 ERA were dismissed because no protective award had yet been made by a tribunal, so no recoverable debt existed.
Practical note
In collective redundancy cases, claims for protective awards must be presented within strict time limits, and claimants cannot recover from the Secretary of State under Part XII ERA until a tribunal has actually made a protective award creating a debt.
Legal authorities cited
Statutes
Case details
- Case number
- 3315261/2023
- Decision date
- 16 April 2025
- Hearing type
- strike out
- Hearing days
- —
- Classification
- procedural
Respondent
- Sector
- transport
- Represented
- No
Claimant representation
- Represented
- Yes
- Rep type
- lay rep