Mr Matthew White v Hertfordshire County Council and 1 other — 2021

Mr White was employed as a teacher at Mill Mead Primary School from 1 September 2014. After becoming unwell in October 2019, he and the head teacher, Mrs Nesbitt, had contact through his union representative, Mr Rose, and then met at a pub on 10 December 2019. The tribunal preferred Mrs Nesbitt's evidence and found that, at that meeting, Mr White agreed that his employment would end on 31 December 2019 by mutual consent.

The tribunal found that there had been no discussion of a financial settlement before that agreement and rejected Mr White's case that he was dismissed when the P45 was later issued or when he was given no teaching duties for the spring term. It found that his later correspondence showed second thoughts after a concluded agreement, rather than evidence that no agreement had been reached. Although Mr White was mentally unwell at the time, the tribunal found that he was aware of what he was doing on 10 December 2019.

Because the employment ended by mutual consent, the tribunal held that there was no dismissal and therefore dismissed both the unfair dismissal claim and the wrongful dismissal / notice pay claim. It therefore did not need to decide the notice-pay point to 3 April 2020 or resolve which respondent was the correct respondent for the school.