Mr Abdelhamid Talla v K & C Catering Ltd — 2022

Employment Judge C Kelly heard the case at Birmingham by CVP on 12 October 2022. The claimant appeared in person and the respondent did not attend. The tribunal accepted the claimant's evidence and made findings on unfair dismissal, unlawful deductions from wages, breach of contract, redundancy pay, holiday pay and the absence of written particulars.

On dismissal, the claimant accepted that the dismissal was substantively fair by reason of redundancy because the respondent had ceased trading, but said it was procedurally unfair because there had been no consultation. The tribunal declared that he had been unfairly dismissed. The judgment did not set out a separate basic award or compensatory award for unfair dismissal.

The tribunal found that the respondent had unlawfully deducted salary for January and February 2022, unpaid service charges/tips for the period 1 October 2021 to 28 February 2022, and pension payments that had not been paid to the pension scheme. It also found that the claimant was entitled to a redundancy payment of £8,357.52. In relation to holiday pay, the tribunal noted that the sum claimed for lost holiday in 2020 was irrecoverable because it was not in the current holiday year at the point of dismissal, but it awarded unpaid holiday pay for 2021.

The tribunal also held that the respondent had failed to comply with the ACAS grievance provisions. It treated the claimant's repeated attempts to establish his position after the unannounced closure of the Cielo Restaurant as grievances, found that the respondent blocked further telephone contact, and described that as a complete disregard of the ACAS Code paragraphs dealing with grievances. A 25% uplift was added to the notice pay, unlawful deduction, holiday pay and written statement awards. The total ordered to be paid was £31,784.68 by 4pm on 26 October 2022.