A strong discrimination claim can still fail if you wait too long
“Reasonable adjustmentsChanges an employer must make under the Equality Act 2010 for a disabled employee, where without them the employee would be at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled colleagues. What coun... claim succeeded on the facts but was dismissed as over five years out of time.”
You can be completely right about what your employer did wrong and still lose your claim, because discrimination claims usually have to be brought within three monthsThe standard time limit for bringing most employment tribunal claims, running from the date of the act complained of. Because the limit is three months less one day, you should not wait until what fee..., minus early conciliationA free process run by ACAS that you must go through before you can submit a claim to an employment tribunal. ACAS contacts your employer to see if a settlement can be reached, and the process pauses y... time.
- Do not wait to see how things settle before raising a discrimination or reasonable adjustments concern, the clock is already running.
- Fear of how your employer might react is not, on its own, a reason a tribunal will extend the time limitThe deadline by which you must submit a claim to an employment tribunal. For most claims the limit is three months less one day from the act you are complaining about, and it is strictly enforced. Mis....
- A late claim is not automatically hopeless. Get advice straight away and let a specialist check.
The situation
An employee who had lived with a severe phobia of dogs for decades told her employer, on her first day, that she could not work around loose dogs. Her manager's only response was to tell her to go into a particular part of the workplace or go home. The employer had a policy requiring dogs to be kept on leads, but never enforced it. She did not bring a tribunal claim about this until years later.
What the tribunal found
The tribunal found that the employer's failure to enforce its own leads policy was a failure to make reasonable adjustments for a genuine disability, and that this part of the claim was well-founded (Equality Act 2010, ss.20 and 21). But it had been brought more than five years after the events it related to, and the tribunal ruled it was not "just and equitable to extend the time limit", so the claim was dismissed anyway despite succeeding on the facts. A related harassmentUnwanted behaviour related to a protected characteristic, such as your sex, race, disability, age or religion, that violates your dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile or humiliating environment... complaint about being refused an office-based role was also thrown out for being around two and a half years late. A second harassment complaint, about a comment made closer to the time, was in time, but the tribunal did not find it well-founded.
D Srodzinski v Burncoose Nurseries LLP. Case 1402195/2024. Employment Tribunal (heard at Truro). Decision approved 26 June 2026.