In person For the v Nicholls Repair Shop Ltd — 2023

The claimant, Daniel Binks, worked for Nicholls Repair Shop Limited from 15 April 2013 until 29 March 2022 as a sprayer. The respondent closed the business in March 2022, sold off the equipment, and gave the three employees two weeks' notice. The claimant said he was told by Mr Nicholls that he would be given an insolvency number so that he could apply for a redundancy payment, and he chased for that number over a number of weeks before being given the accountant's contact details.

The tribunal found that the claimant did not know at the time that the respondent might itself be liable for a redundancy payment, and that he believed he had six months to bring a claim. On 20 August 2022, after speaking to the accountant, he realised he had been misled and needed to bring a claim. His first tribunal claim was rejected on 8 September 2022 because he had not gone through ACAS early conciliation, after which he completed ACAS early conciliation between 26 January 2023 and 13 February 2023 and presented the claim on 17 February 2023.

Applying section 164 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, the tribunal held that the claim was outside the initial six-month period from the effective date of termination, which expired on 28 September 2022, but was within the further six-month period in section 164(2). The tribunal exercised its discretion on the basis that it was just and equitable for the claimant to receive a redundancy payment, taking into account the reason for the delay, the respondent's unaddressed case, and the apparent strength of the underlying entitlement. In the alternative, the tribunal held that the respondent's misrepresentations meant time did not begin to run until 20 August 2022, so the claim presented on 17 February 2023 was still within time.

The tribunal calculated the redundancy payment by awarding 12 weeks' pay. It found that all eight complete years of service were worked when the claimant was over 41, giving an entitlement of 12 weeks at his weekly pay of £520, which was below the statutory cap. The resulting statutory redundancy payment was £6,240, and that was the final award.