Mrs L Humphreys v The Ugly Duckling — 2019

Mrs L Humphreys brought claims against The Ugly Duckling for unfair dismissal and unpaid notice pay. The respondent did not enter a response and did not attend the hearing at Bristol on 19 August 2019. The tribunal therefore proceeded on the claimant's evidence and the documents before it.

On unfair dismissal, Employment Judge Cadney recorded that the respondent's absence and failure to respond meant it could not establish a potentially fair reason for dismissal, so the unfair dismissal claim succeeded. On notice pay, the claimant said she had not been paid notice pay and the tribunal found there was no factual basis for a finding of gross misconduct that would remove entitlement to notice pay, so that claim also succeeded.

For remedy, the tribunal accepted that the claimant found alternative employment from 18 February 2019 and had an ongoing loss of £22 per week until the end of March, after which there was no further loss. It recorded that she had been employed from 13 June 2016 until 11 January 2019. It awarded two weeks' statutory notice pay of £264, a basic award of £396, and a compensatory award of £588.

The tribunal also noted that the claimant had been summarily dismissed without any proper disciplinary process and was not offered an appeal. It applied a 25% uplift for failure to follow the ACAS Code, amounting to £147. The total award was £1,395.