In Person For the v Mr T Moore, General Manager — 2023

The claimant was employed by Milk Club Deliveries Ltd as a milk delivery person from 9 May 2022 until 21 September 2022. The only live issue was the contractual notice period: the claimant said he had completed probation and was entitled to two months' notice, while the respondent said probation had been extended by three months at a probation review meeting on 14 August 2022, leaving only one week's notice.

The tribunal heard evidence from the claimant and Mr Moore, the respondent's general manager. It noted that the respondent did not provide written notice of the probation decision as required by the contract, but the evidence on whether the claimant had been told that probation was extended was directly conflicted. The tribunal found it could not prefer one account over the other and described the decision as finely balanced.

Applying the burden of proof and the balance of probabilities, the tribunal held that the claimant had not proved that he had completed probation or that he had a reasonable expectation that probation had ended. It therefore could not find that he had a two-month notice entitlement rather than a one-week notice period, and the wrongful dismissal claim was dismissed as unfounded.