Ali v Birmingham City Council EAT/0313/08

unfair dismissal | unequivocal resignation | later withdrawal of resignation

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held that an employee's unambiguous resignation will be found not to be effective only in exceptional circumstances.

Mr Ali was upset and tendered his written resignation. His employer gave him 30 minutes to think about his decision, but he continued to insist that he wished to resign. Four days later, he attempted to withdraw his resignation, claiming that he had been "stressed out and couldn't think straight". His employer refused to let him withdraw his resignation. Mr Ali brought an unfair dismissal claim but this was rejected by the employment tribunal. It found that he had not been dismissed, but had resigned. His resignation was unambiguous and the employer was entitled to accept his words at face value.

The EAT agreed. There was no evidence that Mr Ali had acted in the heat of the moment when he gave his resignation and the employer was entitled to think that it was genuinely intended. It had given Mr Ali a "cooling off" period and he persisted in his desire to resign after being given an opportunity to reflect. He did not seek to withdraw his resignation until four days later. During this period his positive conduct and his failure to inform the respondent otherwise indicated clearly to the employer that he wished to resign.

Therefore, Mr Ali had resigned and was not dismissed. His unfair dismissal claim failed.

Case transcript of Ali v Birmingham City Council (Microsoft Word format, 78K) (on the EAT website)

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