EAT Practice and Procedure : Review – UNFAIR DISMISSAL – Dismissal/ambiguous resignation
An employee who worked for a building society was disciplined for carrying out personal transactions whilst serving at the branch. The disciplinary panel had not yet announced its decision when the Claimant’s trade union representative asked to appeal to the Chair. He did, and was told that the decision would be to dismiss her. He asked if he could consult the Claimant before it was announced, and whether if she resigned before the announcement she could have a ‘clean’ reference. He consulted her; she spoke to her husband; and then offered her resignation. The Employment Tribunal concluded this was a resignation, and not a dismissal.
The Claimant appealed, asserting untruthfully that the TU representative was an employee of the Respondent, and thus that she was pressured into resignation, such that it was not truly a voluntary choice but a dismissal. Leave to proceed to a full hearing was granted partly on that basis. When the true facts came to light, the Respondent sought a review of the grant of permission to proceed. Though it had to be emphasised that reviews of such a decision would very rarely if ever be granted, one was: but on review, the Claimant having declined to accept the hearing as the hearing of the appeal itself, it appeared there still remained an issue of law which should be determined at a full hearing, and the original decision was confirmed.
Langstaff P J
[2013] UKEAT 0028 – 13 – 2310
Bailii
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 01 December 2021; Ref: scu.522347
