The Respondent was concerned about the Claimant's performance and after a 3 month sabbatical, told her on 1 September that she could not return to her current role of Managing Director. She was then put on garden leave and on 29 September the Respondent wrote to the Claimant (for the sake of clarity) to tell her that she was now being given notice of termination of her employment, which would come to an end on 23 October. If the EDT was 23 October, as the ET found, the Claimant's claim of unfair dismissal would be in time, but if it was actually 1 September as the Respondent contended, it would be out of time. The Respondent appealed against a decision that the EDT was 23 October.

The EAT allowed the appeal. The effective date of termination was a statutory concept. Here the ET had found that the Claimant had been told that her contract of employment was at an end on 1 September. That was effective to bring about the Claimant's summary dismissal (Hogg v Dover College [1990] ICR 39 EAT applied). In the circumstances, the ET had erred by then going on to hold that the dismissal was not effective until 23 October 2015. The appeal would be allowed and the matter remitted to the ET to determine whether it had been reasonably practicable for the Claimant to lodge her claim in time or, if not, whether she had lodged it within such period as was reasonable thereafter.