The government is to push ahead with extending the limitation period for bringing employment claims. In an amendment to the Employment Right Bill, minister Justin Madders set out a reform which would increase the time limit for bringing proceedings from three months to six.

The extension had been expected as part of the government’s employment law reforms but was not included in the bill when it was introduced last month. Several lawyers have questioned why such a significant change was not part of the initial bill.

The legislation is currently with a Public Bill Committee which is scrutinising the proposals and will report to the House of Commons by 21 January.

Witnesses gave evidence to the committee this week and were asked about the impact of a six-month limit.

Joeli Brearley, founder of campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed, told MPs the current three-month limit is letting down women suffering discrimination at work and stopping them taking action against employers.

‘We know, certainly in cases of pregnancy and maternity discrimination, that fewer than 1% of women who have that experience even raise a tribunal claim,’ said Brearley. ‘Part of what we need to do is extend that time limit to raise a claim. It is currently three months. It needs to be at least six months, so that women have the opportunity to recover from their experience before they start to go through that onerous, difficult process of raising a tribunal claim.’

The committee heard that any change would put extra pressure on a tribunal system that is already reporting delays of up to two years.

Ben Willmott, head of public policy with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said the tribunal system was already ‘swamped’ and there was likely to be an increase in tribunal applications.

Alex Hall-Chen, principal policy adviser with the Institute of Directors, added: ‘There is a particular concern that these changes, particularly around protection against unfair dismissal from day one of employment, will be introduced before the tribunal system has been sufficiently reformed to be able to deal with the influx of cases that will come with them.’

Commenting on LinkedIn on the six-month amendment, barrister Danny Smith, of Broadway House Chambers, said: ‘I personally welcome this, the existing limit of three months is clearly insufficient. It might also reduce the satellite arguments regarding discrimination time limits surrounding “continuous act” etc which will save time and expense in the long run.’