Can a notice period start even when the employee has not read their dismissal letter? Charles Pigott investigates
- The Supreme Court has decided that a contractual notice period did not start to run until the employee had read the dismissal letter.
- It declined to imply a term that notice should run from the date the letter arrived in the post.
In Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v Haywood [2018] SC 22, [2018] All ER (D) 110 (Apr) the Supreme Court has finally settled the question of how to calculate the date from which a written notice of dismissal starts to run, in the absence of an express term in the contract of employment.
Why the date of dismissal mattered
Ms Haywood worked for an NHS Trust. Her post was in the process of being made redundant and she was approaching her 50th birthday. She was entitled to 12 weeks’ notice and there was no express term in her contract of employment stipulating how notices were to be given.
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