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	United Kingdom Employment Appeal Tribunal
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom Employment Appeal Tribunal >> McDonald v Pro Delta Systems Ltd [1998] UKEAT 1326_98_1712 (17 December 1998) URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/1998/1326_98_1712.html Cite as: [1998] UKEAT 1326_98_1712

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APPEARANCES

 

For the Appellant	MR C GILLOT (Representative) Employment Relations Advisory Services 5 Wilderspin Close Girton Cambridge CB3 0LZ


 


JUDGE J ALTMAN: This is an appeal from the decision of the Bury St Edmunds Tribunal on 1 October 1998 and it comes before us, by way of a preliminary hearing, to determine whether there is an arguable point of law such as to justify consideration of this appeal by a full hearing before the Employment Appeal Tribunal.

The Appellant was employed on 23 March 1998 and her employment was terminated on 23 June 1998. During the first three months of her employment she was entitled to one week's notice; thereafter, she was entitled to four weeks' notice.

The Tribunal held that if someone works from and including 23 March and continues working until the end of 23 June, the first day of work does not count in computing the period of employment. That clearly raises an arguable point of law.

There is a secondary point of law, raised in the Notice of Appeal, which, effectively, is this: if someone is dismissed summarily in breach of contract, is that person not entitled to claim, by way of damages, for the breach of contract - in that there is dismissal without notice - the amount of pay they would have received if due notice had been given?

There is no doubt that seven days' notice would, of course, have extended the period of employment. The point of law which arises in this case is whether that clear proposition is affected by the fact that there was a term of the contract between the parties which entitled the employer to terminate without notice and give pay in lieu of notice. Did that term convert that form of dismissal from what is usually a breach of contract to one that is a contractually valid one?

Those two matters clearly give rise to arguable points of law and we direct that the Appeal be listed for one hour, in category C; skeleton arguments to be furnished not less than 14 days before the hearing.