Where an employee is dismissed summarily, the effective date of termination of his employment for the purposes of employment law is the date of the summary dismissal. It makes no difference that the dismissal might have amounted to a repudiatory breach of the employment contract such that the employee might be entitled to bring a claim for damages in respect of such dismissal.
Browne-Wilkinson J said: ‘(3) . . We therefore consider it to be a legitimate use of words to say, in the context of [the section], that the termination of the contract of employment ‘takes effect’ at the date of dismissal, since on that date the employee’s rights under the contract are transformed from the right to be employed into a right to damages. This view receives support from the remarks of Winn LJ in Marriott v. Oxford and District Co-operative Society Ltd (No. 2) [1970] 1 QB 186, 193 . . This indicates that the date of final termination of the contract is not necessarily ‘the effective date of termination’ or ‘the relevant date’: if, as in the case of repudiation, further full performance becomes impossible, that will be the relevant date.
We consider it a matter of the greatest importance that there should be no doubt or uncertainty as to the date which is the ‘effective date of termination.’ An employee’s rights either to complain of unfair dismissal or to claim redundancy are dependent upon his taking proceedings within three months of the effective date of termination (or in the case of redundancy payments ‘the relevant date’). These time limits are rigorously enforced. If the identification of the effective date of termination depends upon the legal subtleties of the law of repudiation and acceptance of repudiation, the ordinary employee will be unable to understand the position. The Dedman rule fixed the effective date of termination at what most employees would understand to be the date of termination, i.e. the date on which he ceases to attend his place of employment.’
Judges:
Browne-Wilkinson J
Citations:
[1981] ICR 816
Citing:
Applied – Dedman v British Building and Engineering Appliances CA 1973
The claimant sought to bring his claim under a provision which required a complaint to the industrial tribunal to be made within four weeks of the dismissal unless the employment tribunal was satisfied that this was not ‘practicable’. He did not . .
Cited – Marriott v Oxford and District Co-operative Society Ltd (No. 2) CA 1970
After pointing out that the statutory definition of ‘the relevant date’ for redundancy payment purposes . . is the date of the expiry of the notice or (if there is no notice) the date on which the termination takes effect, Winn LJ said: ‘That is . .
Cited by:
Cited – Kirklees Metropolitan Council v Radecki CA 8-Apr-2009
The council appealed against a finding that the claimant’s case had been brought in time. There had been negotiations for a compromise agreement which had failed. The EAT had found it unclear that the employment had ended at the point asserted by . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Employment
Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.331990
Comments are closed.