Mr N. Malaviya v WAAM3D Ltd — 2022

The claimant originally advanced complaints including alleged pension arrears, wrongful termination and unfair treatment, but Judge Lewis later limited the case to a breach of contract claim for 3 months' notice pay because the claimant did not have sufficient service for an unfair dismissal claim. At the hearing, the parties confirmed that the pension claim had been settled, so the tribunal was concerned only with whether WAAM3D had breached the employment contract by giving the wrong notice or making notice conditional on a consultancy agreement.

The tribunal rejected the claimant's case that his employment started on 14 August 2020. It found that the written contract dated 12 August 2020 provided for a start date of 1 September 2020, the August emails were informational rather than instructions to work, and the claimant accepted 1 September 2020 as the start date in his own email. The tribunal also found that any August activity was self-directed and did not amount to the commencement of employment.

On notice, the tribunal found that the contract gave 3 months' notice after probation, but only 2 weeks' notice during the initial probationary period, and that WAAM3D validly extended probation by 3 months after a 30 November 2020 meeting followed by a confirming email. It accepted that the email was sent outside normal business hours, but held that this defect did not invalidate the notice in context, relying on Mannai. The tribunal also found that the claimant accepted the extension at the time and that Dr Martina, as CEO, was able to exercise the company's contractual rights.

The tribunal further held that the claimant's notice was not conditional on WAAM3D entering into a consultancy agreement with him. The January 2021 email exchanges were only preliminary negotiations, with no clear and certain agreement reached and no mirror-image acceptance of terms. WAAM3D served 2 weeks' notice on 15 January 2021, the claimant had already referred to 31 January 2021 as acceptable, and the payslip showed he was paid the 2 weeks' notice in full on 29 January 2021. The tribunal therefore found no breach of contract and dismissed the claim.