Miss T Collins v Barnabas House Ltd — 2022

Miss T Collins had worked for Barnabas House Ltd since May 1990 and was Nursery Manager when the employment ended. The dispute arose after a COVID-19 related early years funding issue in July 2020, when she had submitted figures to Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council that were lower than she was entitled to claim. On 13 July 2020 Mrs Cooper telephoned her about the matter after the portal had been reopened to allow the figures to be corrected. The tribunal found that the conversation became tense and that the claimant said, in substance, "I’m not, so you better get cover, I’m off" after Mrs Cooper said, "You’re the manager, manage". The claimant then gathered her belongings, took a file of work documents, left her nursery keys behind, and left the premises around noon.

The tribunal preferred the evidence of Mrs Cooper, Miss Cassidy and Miss Kendall on the key events, including what was said when the claimant left and how her colleagues understood it. Applying the authorities cited in the judgment, including the ordinary meaning approach to resignation and the reasonable listener question, the tribunal held that the claimant's words were unambiguous and meant that she was leaving. It also found that the surrounding conduct supported a resignation: she told colleagues she was going, waited before leaving, and did not take her nursery keys with her.

The tribunal then considered whether this was a heat-of-the-moment resignation and whether the respondent had accepted it too quickly. It found that the claimant had time to reflect before leaving, did not contact the respondent on 14 July 2020 to say she was unwell or that she had not resigned, and did not challenge the respondent's 15 July or 21 July letters until 30 July 2020. The tribunal held that the 48-hour period before the respondent confirmed it had treated the conduct as a resignation was a sufficient cooling-off period in the circumstances. It therefore concluded that the claimant had resigned and had not been dismissed, so the unfair dismissal claim failed. The contractual claim also failed because the claimant resigned without notice and was not wrongfully dismissed; the final judgment records that the breach of contract claim was dismissed.