Mrs A Machaj v Canners & Packers International Limited — 2023

Mrs A Machaj worked for the respondent, Canners & Packers International Limited, after her role transferred from Mr I Oliver’s business. The tribunal heard evidence about meetings and messages in October 2022 after the respondent lost the St Dalfour contract, and it accepted that the claimant was told she might be losing her job. However, it found that those discussions amounted to a warning about a potential redundancy situation rather than notice that her employment would end on a defined date.

The tribunal preferred the claimant’s evidence on some factual matters but concluded that no firm date of termination was ever communicated by the respondent in October 2022, in January 2023, or when the claimant left on 31 March 2023. It found that the claimant remained employed after January 2023, that 31 March 2023 was the date proposed by the claimant to align with her new NHS job, and that the respondent had not itself given notice of dismissal by reason of redundancy or otherwise. On that basis, the tribunal rejected both the unfair dismissal complaint and the redundancy payment claim.

The tribunal also found that the claimant had never expressly resigned, because her email of 3 March 2023 did not use the word resign or clearly state that she was ending the employment. Even so, it held that the respondent was entitled to conclude that she had impliedly resigned by seeking and accepting alternative employment, obtaining a reference, and indicating a leaving date. The tribunal therefore held that the employment ended by resignation rather than dismissal, and both claims failed.