EAT highlights importance of clarity when a disciplinary process is initiated during notice period

In Amajane v Metroline Travel Ltd [2025] EAT 122, following an altercation with a bus controller, the claimant, a bus driver, resigned by letter on 15 January 2020, giving one month’s notice to expire on 22 January 2020. Before his notice expired, the respondent initiated a disciplinary process and arranged a hearing for 22 January 2020. Due to the unavailability of the claimant’s union representative, the hearing was rescheduled to 27 January 2020, after the expiry of his notice period, and at that hearing the claimant was dismissed.

The employment tribunal found it had no jurisdiction to consider the claimant’s unfair dismissal claim because his employment had already terminated by resignation on 22 January 2020, before the dismissal. The EAT held that the employment tribunal had erred in law by failing to consider whether the parties had agreed to postpone termination when the claimant consented to attend the disciplinary hearing. It was open to the parties to agree to extend or withdraw notice before it expired (see Harris & Russell Ltd v Slingsby [1973] ICR 454). The evidence suggested that such an agreement may have been reached on 22 January 2020, as both parties proceeded as if the employment continued. However, the EAT could not finally determine the issue without hearing evidence, and remitted the case to the employment tribunal.

This decision provides a practical reminder that, where disciplinary proceedings continue during a notice period, parties should clarify in writing whether employment continues beyond expiry of notice to avoid jurisdictional uncertainty.

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