May 09, 2011
The recent decision in the Employment Appeals Tribunal of Wang v University of Keele has given useful guidance on how to calculate the effective date of termination of an employee’s employment.
The effective date of termination (EDT) is the date that an employee’s contract of employment comes to en end after any notice period has been worked or pay in lieu of notice has been legitimately given. This is an important date as it determines when various employee rights, such as the right to claim unfair dismissal or redundancy, begin to accrue or rights given by the contract of employment are terminated.
Where notice of an employee’s dismissal is not given in writing, the notice period starts at the beginning of the day following the day that the notice of dismissal was given. The case in the Appeal Tribunal clarified that where the notice is given in writing, the same rule will apply. So in the case, the employee was permitted to bring a claim for unfair dismissal when they lodged the claim at the tribunal on the 2nd May 2009 after having received an email notifying them of their dismissal on the 3rd November the year before (the employee had a three month notice period and there is a three month deadline for filing an unfair dismissal claim commencing on the EDT.)
