Mr R Gibbons v Newcode Partnership Ltd — 2022

Mr R Gibbons brought a claim for ordinary unfair dismissal, together with claims for unpaid wages and unpaid holiday. At the hearing on 24 August 2022, the tribunal dealt only with the preliminary issue of the effective date of termination and whether the claimant had the two years' continuous service needed for an unfair dismissal claim. The tribunal heard from Mr Gibbons and from Mr Dev, the Managing Director, and accepted Mr Gibbons's contemporaneous notes and email evidence where there was a conflict.

The tribunal found that on 16 February 2022 Mr Dev told Mr Gibbons that he was "letting him go" because he was not "gelling" with him, but did not tell him that the dismissal was immediate or give him a specific termination date. The tribunal treated the 22 February 2022 letter as ambiguous, because it referred to "if we can agree to part ways" and to continued payment, and it also relied on the later email of 28 February referring to the claimant being "on garden leave" and the reply by 1 March that Mr Dev had "already let you go". It therefore found that the effective date of termination was 22 February 2022, the date entered on the HR system, and that the absence of further work and of pay after 18 February was consistent with that date.

Having found the effective date of termination was 22 February 2022, the tribunal said that the claimant appeared on the face of it to have insufficient service for an unfair dismissal claim. It then considered the statutory extension of the effective date of termination, found that no notice had been given, and said that the extension would bring the claim within time. The tribunal also noted that this would only assist if the respondent was not entitled to dismiss summarily for gross misconduct, but it did not decide that point because the reasons for dismissal were to be dealt with at the next hearing, when the wages claim and holiday pay claim would also be decided.