Acceptance

An offer remains open until it is accepted, rejected or withdrawn. If an employee is given a time limit in which to accept, the offer will lapse automatically if the deadline is not met or extended. If there is no deadline, an offer will lapse after a reasonable period and the employer will be entitled to assume that it has been rejected.

Even if an offer is not formally accepted, turning up and starting work is likely to be an acceptance of the terms and conditions contained in it. However, this will not always be the case. The legal test is whether the only sensible explanation for the employee’s behaviour, namely turning up and starting work without contesting any of the terms offered, is that he has accepted all the terms. This is discussed further in chapter 7.