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Contracts of employment: Dismissal for "good cause" terminates long-term sickness benefits

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    Briscoe v Lubrizol Ltd [2002] IRLR 607 CA (0 other reports)

Key points

  • An employee on long-term sick leave who failed to maintain communication with his employer regarding his continued absence, and who had not provided continuous medical certificates, was lawfully dismissed so as to terminate any entitlement to benefits under the employer's permanent health insurance scheme, the Court of Appeal holds in Briscoe v Lubrizol Ltd [2002] IRLR 607.
  • Although there is an implied contractual term that an employer will not, save for good cause, terminate employment so as to remove an employee's entitlement to such benefits, this did not prevent a dismissal where the employee had shown an intention no longer to be bound by the contract.