In person For the v Vohkus Limited — 2022

Mr Ben Stratford was employed by Vohkus Limited from 1 September 2019 as a Service Delivery Manager and was summarily dismissed for alleged misconduct on 10 December 2021. The tribunal heard the remedy issues remotely on 5 August 2022. It found that he had been unfairly dismissed and that his breach of contract claim succeeded in respect of his three months' contractual notice. The claimant did not seek reinstatement or re-engagement.

On remedy, the tribunal accepted that the claimant's net weekly pay with the respondent was £817.19, made up of net pay and pension contributions. It found that he obtained alternative employment on 17 February 2022 at a lower salary of £40,000 per year, with a net weekly pay of £593.84 and a weekly loss of £223.35. The tribunal awarded £8,171.90 for the 10 weeks between dismissal and the start of the new job, £5,360.40 for the 24 weeks to the hearing, and £500 for loss of statutory rights. It also awarded £5,807.10 for 26 weeks of future loss, saying the claimant's request for two years' future loss was too speculative.

The basic award was £1,088.00, giving total compensation for unfair dismissal of £20,927.40. The tribunal recorded that the notice-loss element had already been compensated within the unfair dismissal award, so no separate breach of contract award was made. It also found that the Employment Protection (Recoupment of Jobseeker's Allowance and Income Support) Regulations 1996 did not apply.