How many times a day do you think about handing in your resignation? How often do you reassure yourself that your employer would not accept that resignation anyway? Well if this is you, you need to be aware that acceptance is not needed.

Your contract of employment states how much notice you must give your employer when you want to leave and sometimes, whether this must be in writing or not. If you give your employer notice that you want to leave in accordance with those provisions in your contract, your employment will always terminate at the end of the notice period. Who cares; this is how it is supposed to work, right? Well you might care if you are leaving under difficult circumstances.

Wallace v Ladbrokes Betting and Gaming Ltd (UKEAT/0168/15/JOJ) highlights where problems can occur. The Claimant wrote to her employer, tendering her resignation on notice in line with her contract. The resignation letter was unequivocal and unambiguous stating her last day and termination date to be 26 October 2012 but the Respondent asked her to reconsider and reassured her that her resignation would not be processed until they had discussed her concerns.

Despite further conversations with her employer, no resolution could be reached and the Claimant’s P45 was issued confirming a termination date of 15 November. The Claimant subsequently issued proceedings on 13 February 2014, but the Tribunal ruled that she was outside of the statutory time limit within which you can bring a claim. This time limit is three months less one day from the date of termination and her resignation letter had stated 26 October 2012 as her termination date. Her claim should have been lodged by 25 January 2013. An appeal was lodged on the basis that the subsequent discussions between her and her former employed demonstrated that they had not accepted the resignation on the date in her notice letter.

The appeal was dismissed, the discussions were not significant enough to constitute an alteration of the notice period – Whilst it is often good practice for an employer to acknowledge and ‘accept’ a resignation, there is no legal requirement for them to do so. If you are an employer or an employee and you do agree to alter a notice period, you would be advised to make this agreement as unequivocal and unambiguous as the original notice.