Emily Szmaglik v Midway Social Club Limited — 2022

Emily Szmaglik’s claims against Midway Social Club Limited were heard at Bristol on 11 August 2022. The respondent did not attend and was not represented. Having heard evidence from the claimant and read her schedule of loss, Employment Judge Salter found that her claims for unfair dismissal, redundancy payment, unlawful deductions from wages, wrongful dismissal, and failure to provide a written statement of terms and conditions of employment all succeeded.

On unlawful deductions, the tribunal found a shortfall in wages from 17 September 2021 to 30 September 2021 of £359.96, non-payment of wages from 1 October 2021 until dismissal on 29 October 2021 of £899.92, and accrued but untaken holiday pay of £1,830.65. It applied a 25% uplift of £772.63 because of the respondent’s unreasonable failure to follow the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures, producing a total unlawful deduction award of £3,863.16. The tribunal also awarded a redundancy payment of £1,349.88.

For wrongful dismissal, the tribunal held that the claimant was entitled to six weeks’ notice at £225.98 per week, giving £1,349.88. For unfair dismissal, the written judgment contains an internal inconsistency: paragraph 8 states a compensatory award of £5,670.90, but the component figures and paragraph 10 support a final total compensatory award of £4,770.98. The latter figure matches the arithmetic shown in the judgment and is the amount recorded here. The tribunal also awarded £899.92 for the failure to provide a written statement of terms and conditions of employment, and recorded that the Recoupment Regulations did not apply.