Loss of earnings

Case 2: The facts

Miss Fanstone resigned and gave four weeks’ written notice. On her last day, 10 minutes before her resignation was to take effect, she was dismissed for gross misconduct.

A tribunal upheld Fanstone’s unfair dismissal claim, and awarded compensation including £5,000 for loss of earnings. The employer appealed against the compensatory award, and against an award of two weeks’ pay for its failure to give her a statement of terms and conditions.

The ruling

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) held that the tribunal had been wrong to award Fanstone loss of earnings, as her employment would have ended anyway as a result of her resignation; her loss of earnings were therefore not a result of her dismissal.

However, the EAT upheld the award of two weeks’ pay with regard to the statement of terms and conditions. Although she had been given such a statement when she began work, her employer had – bizarrely – taken it back before her dismissal, insisting that it was the employer’s property. The EAT confirmed that an employer must give the employee a statement for him/her to keep for all the time that s/he is an employee.

Dalia Ros & Daniel Angel t/a Cherry Tree Day Nursery v Fanstone UKEAT/0273/07