(National Industrial Relations Court) Mrs Walker was a school cook, who was told that her services were no longer required. She was invited to resign, and did so. The court was asked to decide whether she had resigned or been dismissed.
Held: She had been dismissed. Brightman J said: ‘In our judgment, if an employee is told that she is not longer required in her employment and is expressly invited to resign, a court of law is entitled to come to the conclusion that, as a matter of common sense, the employee was dismissed. Suppose that the employer says to the employee, ‘Your job is finished. I will give you the opportunity to resign. If you don’t, you will be sacked’. How, we would ask, is it possible to reach a conclusion other than that the employment is being terminated by the employer, even though the employee takes the first and more respectable alternative of signing a letter of resignation rather than being the recipient of a letter of dismissal? We feel that in such circumstances there really can be no other conclusion than the employer terminated the contract.’
Judges:
Brightman J
Citations:
(1972) IITR 280
Statutes:
Redundancy Payments Act 1965 3(1)(a)
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Sandhu v Jan De Rijk Transport Ltd CA 10-May-2007
The court was asked whether the claimant had been dismissed or had resigned. He had attended a meeting to be told that his contract was to be finished. The company later complained that he had resigned when they were unable to reach a compromise on . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Employment
Updated: 18 May 2022; Ref: scu.268098
