Mr L Viner v Mark Holbrook T/A Bristol Joinery — 2019

At Bristol on 23 August 2019, Employment Judge Midgley heard Mr Viner's claims against Mark Holbrook T/A Bristol Joinery. The redundancy pay claim was dismissed because the tribunal found there had been no reduction or diminution in the work of the type the claimant was employed to do, so there was no redundancy situation within section 139 ERA 1996.

The separate wages claim for an outstanding balance of £13 was withdrawn after the respondent paid the amount agreed to be owed.

The holiday claim, pleaded as unlawful deduction of wages in respect of accrued but untaken annual leave and under the Working Time Regulations 1998, was first addressed in oral reasons on 23 August 2019, when the tribunal indicated that four days' leave had not been paid and that a section 38 Employment Act 2002 award would follow. On its own motion under rule 73, the tribunal reconsidered that part of the judgment. It held that, because there was no written contract fixing the leave year, regulation 13(3)(b)(ii) fixed the leave year by reference to the commencement of employment, and it preferred the respondent's evidence that the claimant had taken 16 days' leave in 2018 and was only entitled to 14. The final judgment therefore dismissed the holiday claim and recorded that no award could be made under section 38 because the substantive claims failed.

The final order stated that no sum was due to the claimant for unlawful deduction of wages, unpaid holiday, or breach of the requirement to provide written particulars of employment.