Mrs C Murray v Sainsburys Supermarkets Ltd — 2019

The claimant brought a breach of contract complaint alleging that the respondent failed to give the correct notice of dismissal following a redundancy process. The tribunal found that the claimant had taken up a Customer and Trading Manager role on a four-week trial basis, decided not to continue in it, and was then given notice at a meeting on 25 June 2018 that her employment would end on 7 July 2018.

The tribunal found that the claimant was entitled to 12 weeks' notice, whether under contract or statute, and had been given no more than two weeks' notice. It rejected the respondent's argument that there had been an agreed early release from a longer notice period, finding there was no evidential basis that 12 weeks' notice had been given or that the claimant had waived the respondent's failure to give proper notice.

The complaint was therefore well founded. The tribunal held that the claimant was entitled to damages equivalent to 10 weeks' pay, less any earnings received from her new job during what would have been the notice period, but left the amount to be agreed by the parties or determined at a remedies hearing if necessary.