No evidence driver legally laid off
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I G Lee v Highfield Plant Hire
• A DRIVER who wrote to his employers, Highfield Plant Hire Ltd, terminating his employment after being laid of has been declared to be "redundant" and entitled to a redundancy payment of £240, by a Manchester industrial tribunal.
The company failed to attend the hearing before the Tribunal, which was told that I G Lee was laid off by letter in May 1988 until such time as the company was relocated in new premises, when they would write to him and tell him when to report for duty. Over the following months the only contact the company had with him was to make guarantee payments.
Thereafter, when he attempted to contact the company he was unable to do so. He was informed that the business had been sold. In January 1989 Lee wrote terminating employ ment and claiming redundancy pay.
The tribunal said there was no evidence to show that the company could lawfully lay Lee off. The company had breached the terms and conditions of his employment. The breach was a continued one, made more serious by the company's failure to provide Lee with work or pay his salary. It was a fundamental breach going to the root of the contract, and the indication was that company intended to continue with that breach. Consequently, in terminating the contract of employment, Lee should be treated as having been dismissed. He had terminated it in circumstances where he was entitled to do so without notice because of the conduct of the employer.
The tribunal was satisfied that Lee's "dismissal" was for redundancy reasons.