Effective Date of Termination - Supreme Court Guidance on Summary Dismissal

Under the Employment Rights Act, any claim for unfair dismissal must normally be made within three months after the 'effective date of termination'.

In cases of summary dismissal this is the date 'on which the termination takes effect'. Where the employee is told of the summary dismissal by letter, the tribunals have for at least thirty years said that such a dismissal takes effect only when the employee has read the letter of dismissal or has had a reasonable opportunity to do so.

In the recent case of Gisada Cyf v Barratt, the Supreme Court confirmed that this approach was still correct.

The dismissal letter had been sent to the claimant by recorded delivery. Her stepson had signed for it. She was away visiting her sister and had not actually opened it until four days later. Her dismissal was not effective until she had read the letter.

Points to Note:

Under contract law, the dismissal cannot take effect before the decision is communicated to the employee, except where the employee has deliberately avoided the communications. What amounts to having a 'reasonable...