In Zulhayir v JJ Food Service Ltd Mr Zulhayir had an accident at work and went on long-term sick leave. At first he provided sick notes but these stopped and JJ tried without success to contact Mr Zulhayir. The company finally wrote to him saying that, if he did not confirm by a certain date that he wished to continue working for it, then his employment would be terminated ‘by his own volition’. The letter was returned to JJ unopened. In fact Mr Zulhayir had moved house some months previously without telling JJ.
Mr Zulhayir had begun a personal injury claim against the company who discovered his new address via their insurer’s solicitors. Eventually the letter was sent to Mr Zulhayir’s new address and he opened it. He claimed unfair dismissal, disability discrimination, failure to pay notice and unpaid holiday pay.
JJ argued that Mr Zulhayir had effectively terminated his employment by not informing the company of his new address and not arranging to have post forwarded to him. This used to be known as ‘self-dismissal’.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal disagreed. Given that JJ had made no attempt to contact Mr Zulhayir through the solicitors acting for him on his personal injury claim, the result was that no effective steps were taken by either party to terminate the employment contract until the letter finally reached Mr Zulhayir. That was the first time that Mr Zulhayir learned that JJ no longer wished to be bound by his employment contract – as far as he was concerned, he had been communicating with JJ about the PI claim and the company knew his new address.
Practical Tip: Employers need to adopt a "joined up" approach to dealing with employees. It is possible that the person dealing with Mr Zulhayir's employment was not the same as the person dealing with the personal injury claim. However, from the employee's point of view, the employer is clearly only one entity and should operate as such in dealings with employees.
Also, there is no longer such a concept as ‘self-dismissal’. In this case Mr Zulhayir’s employment was only ended when the company’s letter was actually received by him.