Ms H Ifeka of Counsel For the v City College, Plymouth — 2024

The tribunal heard the claim in the absence of the respondent under Rule 47, having found that the respondent had been in repeated breach of case management orders throughout the proceedings and had made successive late postponement applications which were refused. The respondent's representative and witnesses did not attend, and the tribunal proceeded on the basis of the witness statements and a 256-page agreed bundle.

On the substantive issues, the tribunal found that the claimant had been unfairly constructively dismissed and that her claim of victimisation was well-founded. The tribunal accepted that following the appointment of a new line manager the claimant was subjected to treatment which, taken together, amounted to a fundamental breach of contract entitling her to resign, and that detrimental treatment was carried out because she had done a protected act.

In relation to remedy, the tribunal made a basic award of £1,713.00 and a compensatory award of £8,603.50, comprising £500 for loss of statutory rights and pension losses (£2,105.30 to date of hearing and £5,998.20 representing five years' future pension loss based on the differential between the respondent's and the new employer's pension contributions). For the victimisation claim the tribunal awarded £14,000.00 for injury to feelings at the lower end of the middle Vento band, together with interest of £905.65 calculated at 8% per annum. The Recoupment Regulations were held not to apply.