Resignation issues

[nbee84]

Need advice please, sorry it's long!

3rd Dec - Out of the blue my dh announced that he'd had enough of work and was handing in his notice. He works at a golf club and has been there for 20 years - he is self employed and is paid a retainer by the club to provide them with certain services; running a golf shop, lessons, taking green fees to name a few. He received a letter accepting his resignation on the 4th.

His mind was all over the place last week and the end result was an emergency visit to a psychiatrist where he was diagnosed that he was suffering an 'acute psychotic episode' He was prescribed medication and sent home under the mental health team and we have a crisis team visiting daily. He has been told not to make any decisions at the moment and obviously that he is not to go to work.

Because of all this the concern is that dh was not 'in his right mind' when he wrote and handed in his resignation letter. So, with a friend's help, he wrote a letter withdrawing his resignation until such time that he is well enough to have a meeting with the board of the golf club to decide what happens next. This was handed to them on Monday of this week.

This morning, by recorded delivery, he received a letter from the golf club. To summarise the letter it states that they do not accept the withdrawal, that they felt his original letter was carefully considered. They asked to schedule a meeting next Monday and that they were looking to pay him his notice period (3 months) with a view to him leaving mid January.

The crisis team have stated that dh is not well enough to attend any meetings until a least after Christmas - I have informed the golf club of this.

The question is - can the golf club hold him to the resignation that has been written whilst not of 'sound mind'?

To add to the above - dh had requested that his resignation be kept within the board for 7 days to give him the chance to speak to a few people individually about him leaving. The board scheduled a meeting to discuss his resignation for the Saturday morning. Before the meeting went ahead they were informed of the situation re the psychiatrist etc and his resignation withdrawal letter was handed in on Monday.

No expert I can see there are a few questions that the experts will need to help them answer the question.
Did he have other clients?
Did he own the stock in the shop and did he retain the profit?
Really trying to help others see whether he was actually employed (despite SE status) or whether he is a business who has withdrawn his service to a client.
If he is a business this maybe moving more to company law than employment law.

To answer those questions;

No other clients.

Yes, all running of the shop and the profits are his. Any staff employed in the shop were his responsibility

Sorry posted too soon.

Yes, all running of the shop was his responsibility and the stock and any profits are his. Any staff employed in the shop were employed by him. His contract with the golf club tells him what opening hours he should operate, how many staff he should employ and what services he should provide - like teaching, helping with the running of competitions etc

He is a sole trader - no partners or such like.

As an employer myself I think you need some pretty rapid legal advice. As he has issues over his staff here that could land him in financial hot water.

I would suspect that you paying put for some really good legal advice now could save you a lot of money in the future. Things I am thinking of are TUPE if the staff move over to another employer, redundancy etc.
Regards to giving the golf club notice he is a business offering a service which he has given notice of withdrawal not sure how easy it is to withdraw this.

Thank you.

He is 2 young lads that do a few hours here and there as needed. They are under PAYE but rarely earn enough to even pay ni. He has one assistant who has been with him for 15 years - with a break in employment about 3ish years ago where he left to work for someone els, it didn't work out so he came back to work for dh. Dh has already stated that he will 'see him right' and pay over any minimum that he will be entitled to. But you are right and we will take advice over this. At the moment we have 1 friend speaking to an employment specialist they know and another speaking to an employment barrister friend. We also have the option of a legal helpline through the PGA which my husband is a member of.

At the moment we are just trying to find out the right questions to ask. As you can imagine we, and the couple of friends we have spoken to, are just absolutely aghast at the reaction from the golf club and their treatment of my dh who is currently mentally ill.

And the lads have worked for him for the far less than 2 years.

Regards to giving the golf club notice he is a business offering a service which he has given notice of withdrawal not sure how easy it is to withdraw this.

That is our main question really - can they except a resignation letter that was written when someone was mentally ill and in no position to make a decision like that.

If he's genuinely self employed, resignation doesn't come into it. He needs to check the terms of his contract with the golf club and see what it says about termination of the arrangement on either side. The contract should also address the issue of staff employed by whoever holds the contract.

If he was employed, it might make a difference, but if he's not, then the golf club can easily terminate anyway, according to whatever terms are in the contract.