Insolvency; notice pay; the Secretary of State cannot deduct tax/NI from notice pay if the claimant didn't actually receive the money.
Contract; redundancy; implied term of reasonable notice.
Dismissal; effective date of termination; a dismissal takes effect when the employee is told, not when they read the letter.
Notice pay; sickness; s.87(4) ERA 1996. An employee dismissed on long-term sick leave with 13 weeks' contractual notice, unpaid, claimed pay for the notice period under s.88. The EAT held that because his contractual notice exceeded the 12-week statutory minimum by at least a week, s.87(4) disapplied the employer's liability under s.88 for the whole notice period, contractual and statutory alike. Section 91(5) did not assist: it only requires ss.87 to 90 to be taken into account where the employer fails to give the s.86 notice, and giving more than the statutory notice is not such a failure. The tribunal had also erred in finding the contract varied to 12 weeks. A longer contractual notice period thus leaves the employee worse off than the statutory minimum would.
Breach of contract; probationary period; an express contractual right to extend a probationary period must be actively exercised. By allowing the probationary period to pass without dismissing the employee or expressly exercising the right to extend it, the employer lost the right to dismiss on one week's notice and the employee became entitled to three months' notice under her contract.