Summary Dismissal in UK Law

— something done by the employee which impliedly or expressly is a repudiation of the fundamental terms of the contract; and in my Judgment if ever there was such a repudiation this is it. He is to look after the garden and he is to look after the greenhouse. If he does not care a hoot about either then he is repudiating his contract. That is what it seems to me Pepper did, and I do not see, having done that, that he can complain if he is summarily dismissed.

To my mind, the proper conclusion to be drawn from the passages I have cited and the cases to which we have been referred is that, since a contract of service is but an example of contracts in general, so that the general law of contract will be applicable, it follows that the question must be - if summary dismissal is claimed to be justifiable - whether the conduct complained of is such as to show the servant to have disregarded the essential conditions of the contract of service.

(4) Without the agreement of the employee, the employer summarily dismisses the employee and tenders a payment in lieu of proper notice. This is by far the most common type of payment in lieu and the present case falls into this category. The employer is in breach of contract by dismissing the employee without proper notice. However, the summary dismissal is effective to put an end to the employment relationship, whether or not it unilaterally discharges the contract of employment.

At common law, damages for loss of earnings on summary dismissal are limited to the loss of salary and other benefits during the period until the contract could have been lawfully determined by the employer, in this case six months: Chitty on Contracts 26th Edition, para. 3989.

Consistently with these provisions, Mr Johnson was written a letter of engagement which stated his salary and summarised the terms and conditions of his employment, including the notice period. Apart from the statement that in the event of gross misconduct, the company could terminate his employment without notice, it made no reference to disciplinary matters.

A summary of the allocation of powers and responsibilities in unfair dismissal disputes bears repetition: it is for the employer to take the decision whether or not to dismiss an employee; for the ET to find the facts and decide whether, on an objective basis, the dismissal was fair or unfair; and for the EAT (and the ordinary courts hearing employment appeals) to decide whether a question of law arises from the proceedings in the ET.

To draw a distinction between gross misconduct and repudiatory conduct evincing an intention no longer to be bound by the contract is in my judgment to make a distinction without a real difference. It may be more common in employment cases to deal with gross misconduct, but that is essentially a form of repudiatory conduct. The two propositions appear to have been so treated by Lord Jauncey of Tullichettle in Neary and Neary v Dean of Westminster [1999] IRLR 288 when he said at paragraph 20:—