Claimant was dismissed when P45 was sent following a lack of clarity which led to the respondent mistakenly believing that the claimant had resigned.

The claimant was employed as a HGV driver. The claimant had a heart attack and was absent from work and required medical clearance before he could resume driving duties.  In March 2024, the claimant emailed the respondent stating that he would not regain the licence for a further six months following a medical assessment. On 26th April 2024, the claimant was emailed by the respondent referring to his leaving date and enclosing a P45.  A subsequent email stated that the payroll administrator believed that the claimant had emailed officially leaving their employment. The claimant lodged proceedings for unfair dismissal and direct discrimination relating to disability.

The respondent denied unfair dismissal citing that the P45 was issued in error and that it had emailed on 29th April 2024 to clarify whether he had resigned but there was no response. In the alternative, they pleaded if the dismissal had been made it was on the basis of ill-health and/or some other substantial reason.

In terms of the dismissal, the Tribunal stated an objective approach has to be adopted and the emails referring to a leaving date and the final P45 would be understood by the reasonable recipient as communicating termination of employment.  The later email querying it from the respondent does not retract the dismissal nor does it withdraw the P45 or reinstate the claimant. As a result, termination took place on 26th April 2024.  The Tribunal also found that the email exchanges were consistency courteous and supportive and that taking all of the communications there was no evidential basis on which it could infer that the claimant’s disability played any part in the treatment.   It was the lack of the driving licence which led to the decision being taken.  However, the decision was taken without the statutory process being followed and as a result the unfair dismissal claim was successful.

A factually interesting case where there was a clear miscommunication leading to the P45 and ‘dismissal’ being sent to the claimant via email.  Despite recognising that there was a lack of clarity the respondent did not reverse the decision, withdraw the P45 or reinstate the claimant.  This, as a result, was a dismissal and the lack of compliance with the statutory procedure led to that claim being successful. Ensuring clarity in receiving a resignation before acting upon it is absolutely crucial and ensuring that it objectively would be regarded as a resignation is needed in terms of evidence that can be shown.

NI Tribunal decisions are available on the OITFET website.