Damages: EDT is end of statutory notice in summary dismissals

In Harper v Virgin Net Ltd the Court of Appeal holds:

• Under s.97(2) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, where an employee is summarily dismissed, that employee's effective date of termination ("EDT") is only extended to the end of the statutory notice period to which he or she would have been entitled, and not to the end of their contractual notice period.
• Thus, where the employee does not have one year's continuous employment even after this extension of their EDT, they have no right to bring an unfair dismissal claim, and cannot claim for the loss of the chance to make that complaint in an action for wrongful dismissal.
• Comments to the effect that Johnson v Unisys [2001] IRLR 279 also compelled this finding are arguably obiter, meaning that analogous claims in respect of breaches of contractual terms other than those pertaining to notice (such as in Raspin v United News Shops Ltd [1999] IRLR 9) may still be possible.