Mr Gary McIntyre v ’s sister Brady’s Craft Butchers Limited — 2021

The tribunal found that the claimant, Mr Gary McIntyre, was employed by Brady’s Craft Butchers Limited under a written but unsigned contract beginning on 2 October 2020. He brought claims for unfair dismissal, a statutory redundancy payment and notice pay. At the hearing, he accepted there was no discrimination claim, and the tribunal also found that he could not establish two years' continuous service because his earlier work for Smith Direct Butchers had not transferred under TUPE. On that basis, the unfair dismissal and redundancy payment claims were dismissed for want of jurisdiction under sections 108 and 155 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.

The remaining issue was whether the claimant had resigned on 2 March 2021 or whether the respondent dismissed him without notice on 3 March 2021. The tribunal heard evidence about a dispute over a delivery in Paisley, the claimant's messages that evening saying he would be at work the next day and was not walking out, and the meeting on 3 March at which Ms Benham told him the respondent would accept his resignation and later said he was being made redundant with immediate effect. The tribunal preferred the evidence of Marlene Brady Rogon and Daniel Cuthbertson on the disputed conversations, and found the claimant and Ms Benham less reliable on the contested points.

Applying the authorities it cited, including Sothern v Franks Charlesly & Co and Sovereign House Security Services Ltd v Savage, the tribunal held that the claimant's words on 2 March were ambiguous and did not amount to a resignation. It also held that, even if the words were capable of being read as unambiguous, the respondent did not in fact understand them as a resignation, which was supported by Ms Benham asking the claimant on 3 March whether he would resign. The tribunal concluded that the claimant had not resigned by the morning of 3 March.

The tribunal therefore found that Ms Benham's statement on 3 March that the claimant was being made redundant with immediate effect amounted to a dismissal without notice and a breach of the contract's one-month notice provision. The parties had agreed that the claimant's net pay for that notice period was £1,468, and judgment was entered for that sum as damages for breach of contract.