Something wrong at work? · Your ally at the employment tribunal · England, Wales & Scotland
That's how long most people have to start an employment tribunal claim — and most people don't find out until it's too late. More strong cases are lost to that arithmetic than to weak facts. Tribunally exists so it doesn't happen to yours: plain-English guides to your rights, a deadline calculator that shows every step of the statutory working, and the documents a claim needs. Free to use, no account needed.
Tribunal time limits are strict and unforgiving — and since 1 October 2026 there are two regimes. The calculator applies whichever your dates fall under — with the statute shown at every step — and can email you reminders before your deadline arrives.
The guides explain your rights and the process in plain English — what the law protects, how ACAS conciliation works, and the questions that decide cases.
Start the evidence habit today (free — here's how), and when you're ready, the Case Pack gives you every template a claim needs.
Employment law protects more than most people realise — and the protection often doesn't depend on how long you've worked there. Find your situation:
Before anything else: you have the right to be accompanied at disciplinary and grievance hearings by a colleague or a trade union representative — use it. Prepare in writing, take your own notes, and don't resign in the room, however it goes: decisions made in the heat of the moment forfeit thinking time the law otherwise gives you. Start your written record today — what's said in that meeting may matter enormously later.
Prepare: the evidence guide →Dismissal must have a fair reason and a fair process. Unfair dismissal claims usually need two years' service — but not always: dismissals connected to whistleblowing, pregnancy, health and safety, or asserting your rights are protected from day one. The clock runs from your effective date of termination — which isn't always the date on the letter.
3- or 6-month clock · check yours →Resigning in response to conduct that fundamentally breached your contract — unpaid wages, humiliation, impossible demands, a broken relationship of trust — can be a constructive dismissal, claimed like a dismissal. Timing matters twice here: act promptly on the breach, and the tribunal clock runs from when your resignation takes effect.
3- or 6-month clock · check yours →The Equality Act protects nine characteristics — including age, disability, sex, race, pregnancy and maternity, religion and sexual orientation — from day one, with no minimum service, and covers job applicants and many self-employed workers too. Ongoing treatment can count as one continuing act, which changes what a claim can reach.
3- or 6-month clock from each act · uncapped compensationUnpaid wages, underpaid holiday, docked pay and unpaid commission are all "unlawful deductions" — and repeated underpayments can form a series, letting a claim reach back through the lot (within a two-year backstop). Every payday that passes matters, in both directions.
3- or 6-month clock from the last underpaymentRedundancy has rules: genuine reason, fair selection, proper consultation, and statutory redundancy pay if you have two years' service. "Redundancy" used as a label for getting rid of you specifically — while your role survives under a new title — is a dismissal claim wearing a costume.
Redundancy pay: 6-month window · dismissal: 3 or 6 months"Bullying" isn't itself a tribunal claim — a truth most sites won't tell you plainly — but the conduct behind it usually is one: harassment (if it relates to a protected characteristic), or a fundamental breach of trust that supports constructive dismissal if it drives you out. The route your situation takes decides your rights, which is why recording what's happening matters from today.
Start the record →Reporting wrongdoing (whistleblowing), raising a discrimination complaint, or asserting a statutory right — and then facing demotion, exclusion or dismissal — gives rise to its own claims, protected from day one with no service requirement, and for whistleblowing dismissals, no cap on compensation.
3- or 6-month clock from each detrimentThese summaries are the shape of the law, not advice on your case — most situations involve more than one of them, and which claims arise from your facts is exactly what the free routes or a regulated adviser can tell you. What nobody can give you back is a missed deadline — so check that first.
Handles both regimes automatically: the date you enter decides whether the three-month or the six-month limit applies.
Statutory working
The Case Pack (£99) has everything the claim itself needs — the stage-by-stage Playbook, a schedule of loss spreadsheet that computes your figures, and eight professional templates from grievance to witness statement. For scale: one comparable ET1 template alone sells elsewhere for £96.
See what's inside →Get this deadline emailed to you, with reminders at 30, 14, 7 and 2 days before it arrives. We'll also let you know as we publish guides and new tools — including what the 1 October 2026 time-limit change means for you.
Your email is used for the reminders and updates described above, nothing else. See our privacy policy.
EDT 14 Mar 2026 → 3-month period ends 13 Jun 2026 (day before corresponding date)
EDT 30 Nov 2023 → no 30 Feb, so period ends 29 Feb 2024 (last day of month)
Act 1 Oct 2026 → six-month regime → period ends 31 Mar 2027
Act 30 Sep 2026 → three-month regime still applies → period ends 29 Dec 2026
Base 13 Jun · Day A 1 Jun · Day B 29 Jun → s.207B(3): +28 days = 11 Jul; s.207B(4): 29 Jul; later date 29 Jul applies
Every date this tool produces comes with its statutory citation and each step of the calculation — the corresponding-date rule, which time-limit regime applies, the ACAS clock pause, the one-month backstop. Nothing is a black box. You can check it, and so can any adviser you show it to.
What it deliberately doesn't do is judge your case. A calculator can apply arithmetic to the dates you give it; it can't tell you whether those are legally the right dates for your situation, or whether your claim is strong. Those are questions for a person with the whole picture — and the free routes below are where to start.
The Case Pack — £99
Ten professional templates and tools for the whole life of a claim — the Tribunal Playbook, a schedule of loss spreadsheet that does the arithmetic, ET1 skeleton, witness statement, resignation, grievance, appeal, disclosure, SAR and costs letters — each with guidance notes at every bracket. £99 one-off (for scale: a comparable ET1 template alone sells elsewhere for £96 — this is all ten documents for £3 more).
See what's inside →Plain-English explainers of the questions the calculator can't answer for you.
Three months becomes six — but only for new acts. The transitional rules, the series rule, and the trap that will catch people this autumn.
New — read the guideDay A, Day B, the 12-week conciliation period, and exactly how the clock pause works.
Read the guideWhy the date on the letter isn't always the date the law uses — notice, PILON, and communication of dismissal.
Read the guideThe tribunal's limited discretion to extend, and what the two statutory tests actually mean.
Read the guideWhen a course of treatment counts as one act ending on its last day — and when it doesn't.
Read the guideHow far back a wages claim can reach — including the Supreme Court's 2023 rethink on gaps.
Read the guideWhat to save, how to save it lawfully, and the diary habit that wins cases.
Read the guideWe're building personalised support — one-to-one case consultations and written assessments of individual situations, delivered by qualified legal professionals under the regulatory framework that work requires. It isn't available yet: we do things in the right order, and that means the regulatory groundwork comes first. Join the list and you'll be first to know when it opens (and you'll get founding-user pricing).
Join the list →Available today instead: free routes for advice on your situation, and the Case Pack for the documents.
No — and not just as a promise. You don't create an account, you don't give a name, and the calculator runs entirely in your own browser: the dates you enter are never sent to us at all. The only thing we ever hold is an email address, if you choose to ask for deadline reminders. Researching your rights leaves no trail here.
It depends on when the act you're complaining about happened — not on when you claim. Acts before 1 October 2026 carry the old three-month limit; acts on or after that date carry the new six-month limit for most claims. The calculator applies the right regime automatically, and the October 2026 guide explains the boundary cases.
Nothing. Checking a deadline isn't a claim, reading a guide isn't a grievance, and even notifying ACAS — the formal first step — doesn't commit you to claiming. Most people use tools like these precisely while they're still deciding. Knowing your dates simply means the decision stays yours to make.
The calculator, all guides and the reminders are free, and stay free. The one paid thing on this site is the Case Pack (£99, optional) — the full template set. For scale: employment solicitors typically charge £250–£400 per hour, and there's no legal aid for most employment disputes. Our aim is that the free layer alone gets you further than most people ever get.
No — it's legal information, and we're precise about the difference. We explain the rules and do the date arithmetic, with the statute shown so you can check us; we never assess your case or tell you what to do. For that judgment, the free routes below are genuinely good — and going in knowing your deadline and holding your evidence makes their time worth double.
Whatever this site becomes, this section stays. These routes are free, and for many situations they're all you need: