Ms D Hill v Able Healthcare Ltd — 2022

The tribunal heard a preliminary issue about the claimant's start date and effective date of termination, and an application to amend the claim to add unfair dismissal. It found that the claimant's employment started on 2 January 2019, and rejected the claimant's later evidence that she had believed in December 2020 that the start date was 4 January 2019. The tribunal also found that, on 26 December 2020, the claimant knew or could correctly work out that 2 January 2019 was the start date.

On the termination issue, the tribunal held that the respondent was entitled to summarily dismiss without notice. It found that the claimant's handling of the 12 September 2020 incident should have been reported to the Responsible Individual, logged internally as a safeguarding matter, and referred to another manager under the risk assessment. The tribunal found those omissions to be a serious dereliction of duty and a breach of contract, and relied on s.86(6) ERA 1996 together with the statutory EDT provisions to conclude that the effective date of termination was 26 December 2020.

The tribunal rejected the claimant's reliance on the repair issues as a basis for dismissal, finding that the respondent had known about the repairs for months without treating them as a repudiatory breach by the claimant. It also rejected the claimant's suggestion that the 12 September incident had been properly dealt with internally or that the Responsible Individual had been informed. Applying the repudiatory breach authorities cited in the judgment, the tribunal held that the claimant's failures undermined trust and confidence and justified summary dismissal.

The application to amend the claim to add unfair dismissal was refused. The tribunal held that the claimant could not succeed on an unfair dismissal claim because she did not have two years' continuous service by the effective date of termination, and it considered the balance of injustice and hardship to favour refusal. The final hearing on the remaining pleaded claims was left listed.