Ms Aitken v Simpkins & Co — 2024

This was a remedy-only judgment following a liability judgment promulgated on 5 June 2024, in which the tribunal had already found that Ms Aitken was constructively unfairly dismissed. The remedy hearing took place at Bristol by CVP on 2 September 2024 before Employment Judge Murdoch, with the claimant appearing in person and the respondent not attending.

The tribunal held that a Polkey deduction was unsuitable because the claimant was constructively dismissed and would not have been dismissed fairly in any event. It also made no reduction for contributory conduct, finding that the claimant did not contribute by inappropriate conduct to her dismissal. A 25% uplift was applied under section 207A(2) of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 because the respondent failed to adhere to any aspect of the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures.

The basic award was calculated at £8,400. The tribunal used a weekly pay cap of £700, noting that the claimant's gross weekly wage was £646 plus £201 for pension contributions, and applied a multiplier of 12 because the claimant was over 61 and had 8 years' service.

The compensatory award was £20,164. That figure included £500 for loss of statutory rights, £15,631 for loss of earnings, no award for future losses, and a £4,033 ACAS uplift on the underlying compensatory total of £16,131. The loss of earnings was split into £4,007 from 1 June 2023 to 31 October 2023, £2,849 from 1 November 2023 to 2 December 2023, and £8,775 from 2 December 2023 to the date of hearing. The tribunal recorded that the recoupment regulations did not apply because the claimant had not received any state benefits.