No, held the Employment Appeal Tribunal in Marangakis v Iceland Foods Limited.
Mrs Marangakis worked for Iceland Foods Limited (Iceland) as a Sales Assistant from September 2013. She was dismissed in January 2019 for alleged gross misconduct.
Mrs Marangakis appealed her dismissal in February 2019, stating that it was her wish to be “reinstated back into the position that I held before this alleged Incident took place”. Iceland’s disciplinary policy states that “The decision of the appeal hearing is final”.
During the appeal process, Mrs Marangakis explained to Iceland that she believed that “mutual trust, which forms part of the contract between us has been broken”, so she no longer wished to be reinstated. Instead, she wanted “apologies and compensation”.
In April 2019, Mrs Marangakis was informed that her appeal was successful, and she was to be reinstated to her position as Sales Assistant.
Mrs Marangakis never returned to work. She was dismissed in July 2019 because of her failure to attend work.
Mrs Marangakis brought an unfair dismissal claim against Iceland in the Employment Tribunal, arguing that her original dismissal in January 2019 was unfair.
The case reached the Employment Appeal Tribunal, which found that the Employment Tribunal had been correct to hold that Mrs Marangakis’ original dismissal could not be relied upon. She had not withdrawn from her appeal, and “[t]he fact that a person does not wish to return to work for a former employer does not prevent a successful appeal resulting in reinstatement into employment”.
Mrs Marangakis’ unfair dismissal claim did not succeed.
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