Case 1401591/2025 · Employment Tribunal
Ms Justyna Szmidt Respondent 1: The Samurai Kitchen Ltd (in liquidation) Respondent 2: Sore De Ltd (in liquidation) Respondent 3: The Secretary of State for Business and Trade v Ms Whalley — 2026
- Case reference
- 1401591/2025
- Decision date
- 7 April 2026
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Judge
- Employment Judge Sanger REPRESENTATION
Parties
2 namedClaimant
Ms Justyna Szmidt Respondent 1: The Samurai Kitchen Ltd (in liquidation) Respondent 2: Sore De Ltd (in liquidation) Respondent 3: The Secretary of State for Business and Trade
Respondent
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningThe tribunal found that there had been a transfer of an undertaking from The Samurai Kitchen Ltd to Sore De Ltd pursuant to Regulation 3 of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 on or before 30 October 2024. It further found that, under Regulation 4(3), the claimant would have been dismissed but for Regulation 7(1), and that liabilities under the contract of employment therefore passed from the first respondent to the second respondent.
On wages, the tribunal upheld the complaint of unauthorised deductions from wages for the period 16 July 2024 to 2 September 2024. It ordered the second respondent to pay the claimant £3,461.92 gross.
The tribunal also upheld the complaint of breach of contract in relation to notice pay and ordered the second respondent to pay £1,095.84 gross as damages. In addition, it upheld the complaint that the second respondent had failed to pay a contractual redundancy payment and determined under section 163 Employment Rights Act 1996 that the claimant was entitled to £3,595.88.
The judgment records that reasons were given orally at the hearing and that written reasons would not be provided unless requested. The total monetary award reflected in the judgment is £8,153.64.
Claims and outcomes
3 findings recorded| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unlawful deduction from wages | The tribunal found an unauthorised deduction from wages for the period 16 July 2024 to 2 September 2024 and ordered the second respondent to pay £3,461.92 gross. | Upheld | — | £3,462 |
| Breach of contract | The notice pay complaint was found well-founded and the second respondent was ordered to pay £1,095.84 gross as damages for breach of contract. | Upheld | — | £1,096 |
| Redundancy | The complaint that the second respondent failed to pay a contractual redundancy payment was found well-founded. The tribunal determined under section 163 ERA 1996 that the claimant was entitled to £3,595.88. | Upheld | — | £3,596 |
Remedy
Monetary award- Total award
- £8,154
- across all upheld claims
Legal tests applied
4 references- Regulation 3 TUPE 2006
- Regulation 4(3) TUPE 2006
- Regulation 7(1) TUPE 2006
- section 163 Employment Rights Act 1996
Official outcome judgment PDF
Gov.uk primary recordThe official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.
Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How we got this data
Case essentials (reference, date, judge, venue, country, claim categories) are extracted from the structured metadata gov.uk publishes alongside each decision. Parties and monetary figures are extracted from the judgment PDF text. Key findings and per-claim outcomes require a second extraction pass that is not yet complete for this case — until then, the primary source linked above is the authoritative record. See full methodology.
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