(1) Mr M Narzoles (2) Mr R Pajimolin (3) Mr B Tabang v Voltcom Ltd (In Administration) — 2019

The claimants, all Filipino nationals working as overhead linesmen, were dismissed on 12 May 2015 after allegations that they had not been wearing seat belts while driving a multi-terrain vehicle. Their original tribunal claims had been rejected for non-payment of fees, but were reinstated after the Unison decision, and the respondent took no part in the 30 September 2019 remedy hearing. The tribunal heard oral evidence from Mr Narzoles and Mr Pajimolin, with Tagalog interpretation, and considered the employment contracts, internal appeal material and correspondence with the Embassy of the Philippines.

The tribunal held that the claims of unfair dismissal, unlawful deductions from wages, breach of contract and direct race discrimination all succeeded. Applying section 98 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and the cited authorities, including British Home Stores v Burchell and Iceland Frozen Foods v Jones, it found that summary dismissal without notice was not justified. On wages, it accepted that there had been underpayments from November 2014 to March 2015 and unpaid overtime for eight weeks in March and April 2015, but it did not allow Mr Narzoles' earlier 2012 non-payment claim because that period was out of time and did not form part of the same series of deductions.

On race discrimination, the tribunal accepted that the claimants were treated less favourably than British employees in relation to sickness absence and working in adverse weather conditions, with Filipino-only gangs being required to keep working and threatened with return to the Philippines if they did not. It found that this treatment amounted to direct race discrimination and that the claimants were upset and fearful about the pressure placed on them. It also accepted that the pressure contributed to the accident that led to the dismissals, although the dismissal claim was determined separately under the unfair dismissal framework.

The tribunal awarded unpaid wages of £12,506.25 for each claimant for the period October 2014 to February 2015, plus £5,079.36 each for overtime. It awarded unfair dismissal basic awards of £950 each for Mr Narzoles and Mr Pajimolin and £1,425 for Mr Tabang, together with compensatory awards of £12,506.25 each up to October 2015. Notice pay of £1,154.42 each was awarded on the contract claim, and each claimant was awarded £10,000 for injury to feelings on the race discrimination claim. The tribunal said the discrimination compensatory losses were already covered by the unfair dismissal compensatory award, made no award for loss of statutory rights, and recorded total gross compensation of £42,196.28 each for Mr Narzoles and Mr Pajimolin and £42,671.28 for Mr Tabang.