What Form Must A Resignation Have To Be Valid?

As most individuals working within the employment industry will tell you, the law gives very little information on the parameters of employment law in Malta. The recent case of Adolf Vella vs Sea Port Franchising Limited¹ has shed some light on the form a resignation must take in order to be considered valid under Maltese law.

In this case, the Tribunal was faced with conflicting testimonies; the applicant was stating that he had never effectively resigned, whilst the employer was stating that the employee had resigned verbally. Whilst deliberating the case, the Tribunal quoted from Selwyn² who writes that

"if the words used by the employee are clear and unambiguous, then there are no grounds for the employment tribunal to find that the words have a significance other than their plain meaning. If the words are ambiguous, then the test is, what would a reasonable employer have understood by those words in that context. Words spoken or action taken by an employee