Unfair Dismissal: Compulsory First Checks

If you’ve just been dismissed (or are close), do these basics first: confirm your effective date of termination (EDT) and the 3-months-minus-1-day limit, decide whether to start ACAS Early Conciliation to stop the clock, scan for automatically unfair dismissals (no 2-year service needed), and check your status (employee vs worker—the tribunal can look past the label). Do this now so your potential claim stays alive and on track.

Unfair Dismissal your basic checks

Deadline finder: 3-months-minus-1-day — work out your EDT with simple examples.
ACAS Early Conciliation — how “stop the clock” works (and when it doesn’t).
Automatically unfair reasons — fast checklist (no 2-year service needed).
Status check: employee vs worker — quick tests to confirm you can claim.

Deadline finder: 3-months-minus-1-day — work out your EDT with simple examples.

Your deadline is 3 months minus 1 day from your EDT (effective date of termination). Don’t assume EDT is only the date the dismissal “takes effect.” In many cases it starts when the decision is properly communicated to you.

Under section 97 ERA 1996:

If you’re given notice → the EDT is the day the notice period ends.
If you’re dismissed without notice → the EDT is the day the dismissal takes effect.

But s.97 doesn’t define “takes effect.” Case law fills the gap:

Brown v Southall, McMaster v Manchester Airport — a dismissal isn’t effective until you know about it.
Gisda Cyf v Barratt, Haywood v Newcastle — the EDT is when you read the letter (or had a reasonable chance to read it), not when it was written or sent.

Supreme Court in the case of Gisda Cyf v Barratt [2010] ICR 1475. At paragraph 5, Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore said: “The effective date of termination of employment is a term of art that has been used in successive enactments to signify the date on which an employee is to be taken as having been dismissed. The fixing of the date of termination is important for a number of purposes. These include, but are by no means confined to, the marking of the start of the period within which proceedings for unfair dismissal may be taken.”

If you’ve only just found out, don’t guess — check how EDT really works.

ACAS Early Conciliation — how “stop the clock” works (and when it doesn’t).

ACAS Early Conciliation stops the clock. If you’ve calculated your EDT, you must start ACAS within three months minus one day (it’s compulsory for unfair dismissal).

Under s.207B ERA 1996:

Day A = the day you contact ACAS to start Early Conciliation.
Day B = the day you receive the ACAS certificate.

Rule 1 (pause): The period from the day after Day A (ACAS told) up to Day B (ACAS certificate) is not counted towards your time limit. You get out ACAS and resume notmal time limit left.
Rule 2 (one-month tail): If your original deadline expires at any time from Day A up to one month after Day B, your deadline becomes the end of that one-month-after-Day-B period (not a new three months and not extra day spent in ACAS).

So, start ACAS in time, then calculate using Day A / Day B. Still confued ? Check how ACAS stop-the-clock works with easy examples.