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United Kingdom Employment Appeal Tribunal
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom Employment Appeal Tribunal >> Richardson v Drawfern Ltd [1993] UKEAT 430_91_0311 (3 November 1993)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/1993/430_91_0311.html
Cite as: [1993] UKEAT 430_91_311, [1993] UKEAT 430_91_0311
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At the Tribunal
THE HONOURABLE LORD COULSFIELD
MR K HACK
MRS T MARSLAND
Transcript of Proceedings
JUDGMENT
Revised
APPEARANCES
For the Appellant MISS H L PARKINSON
Solicitor
Messrs Whittles
Pearl Assurance House
23 Princess Street
Manchester
M2 4ER
For the Respondents NO APPEARANCE BY OR
REPRESENTATION ON
BEHALF OF THE
RESPONDENTS
LORD COULSFIELD: This is an appeal against a decision of an Industrial Tribunal dated 16 July 1991 under the Chairmanship of Mr J H Bellis at Manchester. The Applicant had applied for a redundancy payment and the circumstances narrated in his application were that he had worked for the Respondents at Wigan but, when the Respondents moved their business to Kendal, Cumbria, he had worked for them there, for a period. After some time, however he found that the arrangements for working in Kendal were not satisfactory and he ceased to work for the Respondents.
When the matter came before the Industrial Tribunal the Tribunal took the view that there was no case of constructive dismissal made in the Applicant's IT1 and that, in order to found a case on the basis of constructive dismissal, it would be necessary to amend the application; and when an application to amend was made, the Industrial Tribunal decided to refuse it. They then dismissed the application, purporting to proceed upon the basis that the Applicant had lost his right to a redundancy payment because he had not complied with the conditions of section 84(4) and (5) of the Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978.
Before us it was submitted that the Industrial Tribunal had reached a wrong conclusion because, for the purposes of an application for a redundancy payment, the Applicant can found either upon an actual dismissal or upon a constructive dismissal, as appears from the provisions of section 83(1) of the 1978 Act. That is clearly a correct submission. Further, in our view, the circumstances narrated in the application were clearly circumstances on the basis of which an argument could be advanced that the Applicant had been constructively dismissed. It is not, in our view, necessary that an application should use the words "constructive dismissal" or otherwise make express reference to that concept to entitle the Applicant to argue that he has been so dismissed. In the present case the narrative in the application clearly sets out facts upon which a submission could properly be made that the Applicant had been constructively dismissed.
In these circumstances it seems to us that the appropriate course is to allow the appeal, without entering into any other questions which might arise in relation to the application. We shall therefore allow the appeal and remit the case to be considered by a different Industrial Tribunal.