Redundancy claim lost
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• A Sheffield
Industrial Tribunal has dismissed a claim by truck driver Robert Emerton for a redundancy payment from his former employer. II Atkinson.
The tribunal was told Emerton had an accident at work and was unable to return, Statutory sick pay was paid until May 1990 when his entitlement ended, and after that Emerton had no formal contact with his employers. It was after he was told by a colleague that there had been a number of redundancies at the firm that Emerton decided that he might be entitled to a redundancy payment. Rejecting Emerton's claim, the Tribunal said that at the end of the statutory sick period the company ought to have kept in contact with Emerton to see if his condition had improved.
But Emerton was also criticised by the tribunal. When he stopped sending sick notes to his employer, the impression given must have been that he did not regard his employment as continuing.
After a period of time, the contract of employment was in law regarded as terminated under the doctrine of frustration, said the tribunal. In this case, this would have been some time between May 1990 and the time Emerton presented his claim to the tribunal.