Unfair dismissal

The EAT has held that an employee was not entitled to her full notice pay from the employer who unfairly dismissed her.

Miss Hardy was summarily dismissed a week after handing in her resignation, for refusing to sign a confidentiality agreement. She started working for a new employer four weeks later, at a higher salary. Although she had been entitled to eight weeks' notice and had only worked one before being dismissed, the EAT held that she was only entitled to payment for the four weeks when she was out of work, rather than the whole of the remaining seven weeks' notice.

This is because the aim of the compensatory award in a unfair dismissal case is to compensate the applicant for their losses, and the applicant has a duty to mitigate those losses by making reasonable efforts to find other work.

* Hardy v Polk (Leeds) Ltd 2004 IRLR 420