Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978

93 Implied or constructive termination of contract

(1) Where in accordance with any enactment or rule of law—

(a) any act on the part of an employer, or

(b) any event affecting an employer (including, in the case of an individual, his death),

operates so as to terminate a contract under which an employee is employed by him, that act or event shall for the purposes of this Part be treated as a termination of the contract by the employer, if apart from this subsection it would not constitute a termination of the contract by him and, in particular, the provisions of sections 83, 84 and 90 shall apply accordingly.

(2) Where subsection (1) applies, and the employee's contract of employment is not renewed, and he is not re-engaged under a new contract of employment, so as to be treated, by virtue of section 84(1), as not having been dismissed, he shall, without prejudice to section 84(6), be taken for the purposes of this Part to be dismissed by reason of redundancy if the circumstances in which his contract is not so renewed and he is not so re-engaged are wholly or mainly attributable to one or other of the facts specified in paragraphs (a) and (b) of section 81(2)

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2), section 81(2) (a), in so far as it relates to the employer ceasing or intending to cease to carry on the business, shall be construed as if the reference to the employer included a reference to any person to whom, in consequence of the act or event in question, power to dispose of the business has passed.

(4) In this section, any reference to section 84(1) includes a reference to that subsection as applied by section 94(2) or as so applied and (where appropriate) modified by section 95(2), and where section 84(1) applies as so modified the references in subsection (2) of this section to renewal of or re-engagement under a contract of employment shall be construed as including references to renewal of or re-engagement in employment otherwise than under a contract of employment.