The claimant had been employed as the registered manager of a retirement home. Shortly after the ‘Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority’ had expressed concerns about the running of the retirement home, the claimant stated that she was resigning with one month’s notice. The next day the claimant indicated, by letter, that she was exercising her right to withdraw the resignation. 

The respondent did not acknowledge the purported retraction of her resignation but subsequently claimed that her employment had ended on completion of the one month's notice. The claimant then claimed, inter alia, unfair dismissal. The tribunal held that the claimant had dismissed that claimant and that it was automatically unfair for the purposes of the 1996 Order.

PRACTICAL LESSONS

Ultimately, the respondent’s major error here was ignoring the claimant’s correspondence indicating that she was retracting her resignation. The tribunal held that there had actually been an acceptance of the retraction of the resignation. If the respondent had taken steps to clarify and establish the claimant’s employment position immediately, then the series of events that followed could have been avoided. The lesson here for employers is that ignoring an employee’s retraction letter/correspondence will not be acceptable and employers must address the situation to ensure they are viewed as having acted ‘reasonably’.