In Person, Assisted by Mr Churchill For the v Mr W Kitchen, Director, Assisted by Mrs E Harding — 2021

The claimant, Mr Jon Bryan, had worked for the respondent since 1994 and was manager at its Barnstaple depot. The respondent decided to close the Barnstaple branch in 2020, offered the claimant alternative work based in Exeter, and then exchanged a series of letters with him after he repeatedly asked for confirmation that the situation was being handled as a redundancy and for clarification of what consultation and redundancy rights applied. The tribunal found that at no stage did the respondent confirm that his role was redundant or that a formal redundancy consultation had commenced, and that this left the claimant without the information he said he needed to assess the offer of alternative work.

The tribunal held that the respondent’s repeated failure to answer those requests amounted to a fundamental breach of the implied term of trust and confidence. Although the respondent had some legitimate commercial reasons for trying to preserve employment and did later make an offer that the claimant accepted would have been a reasonable alternative, that offer came after the claimant had already resigned on 18 August 2020. The tribunal found that the resignation was in response to the breach, so it was a constructive dismissal, and that the dismissal was unfair because the respondent had not acted reasonably in the circumstances or within the range of reasonable responses.

On remedy, the tribunal calculated a basic award of £9,343.47 by reference to the claimant’s age, length of service and weekly pay, and a compensatory award of £1,488.33 for the one month before he obtained new employment. Total compensation for unfair dismissal was therefore £10,831.80. The tribunal declined to apply any uplift under s.207A(2) and declined any reduction on the respondent’s cross-argument, and it held that the Employment Protection (Recoupment of Jobseeker’s Allowance and Income Support) Regulations 1996 did not apply. The notice-period claim succeeded but attracted no further sum, and accrued holiday pay was agreed by consent at £230.67.