Employment claim filed after four months is time-barred

The Industrial Tribunal, with chairperson Harold Walls sitting alone, on 5 May 2026 declared time-barred every claim a former employee brought against her employer. She filed more than four months after her employment ended. The tribunal applied article 75(3) of the Employment and Industrial Relations Act (Chapter 452 of the Laws of Malta) and closed the case on that preliminary plea.

The facts

L.J. worked for Amd Consulting Ltd under a fixed-term contract. Her own statement of the case said the employment ended on 22 May 2024. She said she learned of the termination on 4 June 2024, from a letter by a government agency telling her the company had registered it.

She filed her claim on 5 November 2024. She asked for €2,505.60 as half the wages due for the rest of the agreed term under article 36(11) of the Act, and €2,187.48 in wages she said were withheld from December 2023 to May 2024. She also sought compensation for lost income and alleged that the company did not issue payslips.

The company pleaded that all her claims were time-barred. In the alternative, it submitted that she had always been paid and had online access to her payslips. It had also brought separate proceedings against her before the tribunal, alleging that she abandoned her job.

Her lawyers later withdrew, and she did not attend any of the sittings that followed. The tribunal heard the company's submissions on the plea and adjourned once more so that she could reply. She did not appear.

What the court held

Article 75(1) gives the Industrial Tribunal exclusive jurisdiction over unfair dismissal claims, claims under article 36(11) and (12) on the early end of a fixed-term contract, and cases arising under Title I of the Act. Article 75(3) sets the time limit for referring those cases.

The tribunal quoted the rule: "fil-kazijiet kollha, hekk tigi pprezentata mhux iktar tard minn erba’ xhur mid-data effettiva tal-ksur allegat" (in all cases, [the reference] shall be so filed not later than four months from the effective date of the alleged breach).

The tribunal found that the claim reached the registry on 5 November 2024, more than four months after the employment ended on 22 May 2024. It held that the claims were not made in accordance with article 75(3) and declared them time-barred.

The decision ended the case. The tribunal made no ruling on the withheld wages, the payslips or the early termination of the contract. It fixed the fees of the lawyers who assisted the parties at €94.

Before deciding, the tribunal took steps of its own. Because the applicant had stopped attending and had named no new lawyer, it summoned officials from Jobsplus and from the government department dealing with expatriates to learn whether she was still in Malta.

The tribunal did not discuss the letter of 4 June 2024 that the applicant said first told her of the termination. It counted from the end date she gave in her own statement. It also recorded that adjournments and a lack of facilities prevented it from deciding within the time the law sets.

Why it matters

The tribunal applied the four-month limit to every claim in the reference, including the wage claims and the claim for the rest of the fixed term, not only to the termination itself. The date a worker gives in her own statement of the case can decide the plea against her.

Lawyers taking on a tribunal claim should fix the date of the breach first and file well inside four months. If the worker learned of the termination later, the statement of the case should say so and argue why that later date is the effective date of the breach.

Where it sits

Article 75 channels individual employment disputes to the Industrial Tribunal and makes a written reference to the tribunal the only remedy. The reference must set out the facts of the case and be filed in the tribunal's registry within four months of the effective date of the alleged breach.

Cases under article 75 are heard by a chairperson alone, which is why no panel members sat. A claimant who fails to attend still faces the plea, and the tribunal can decide it on the written record and the other side's submissions.

The tribunal described the claims as "preskritti" (time-barred). It named no earlier decision and decided on article 75(3) alone.

Source

Industrial Tribunal, 2026/3179, 5 May 2026.