Brian Taylor Wilson First v Seighford Hall Nursing Home Ltd Second Respondent: First Blue Propco 2 Limited Third Respondent: Thomas Butler Heard — 2022

The tribunal found that the claimant's employer remained the first respondent, Seighford Hall Nursing Home Ltd, despite the share and property transactions in June and July 2020. It considered TUPE but concluded there was no transfer of the claimant's employment to the second respondent, and it dismissed the claims against the second and third respondents on that basis.

The claimant succeeded on unlawful deduction from wages and holiday pay. The tribunal held that statutory sick pay had been underpaid and awarded £2,511.27 for unlawful deductions. It also found that the claimant had taken no holiday before dismissal and awarded £1,554.55 for 28 days' accrued but untaken holiday pay.

The unfair dismissal claim succeeded because the tribunal found the first respondent did not make sufficient attempts to notify the claimant of the disciplinary process, so he was not given the chance to attend the disciplinary hearing or respond to the allegations. However, the tribunal held under the Burchell approach that, had he engaged, dismissal would still have followed, so it made a 100% Polkey deduction to compensatory loss. It also reduced the basic award to nil under section 122(2) because it found the claimant's conduct blameworthy.

The notice pay or wrongful dismissal claim was dismissed. The tribunal held the claimant's conduct was sufficiently serious to amount to repudiatory breach, so summary dismissal was justified and no damages for notice were payable. The judgment contains inconsistent year references for the effective date of termination, so that date is not fully reliable from the extracted text alone.