Mrs R Crossland v Abbey Education and Care Limited HELD by Cloud Video Platform (CVP) (Leeds) — 2022

On 26 October 2022, Employment Judge Shulman heard the case by CVP with Mrs R Crossland appearing in person from New York and the respondent absent and unrepresented. The tribunal recorded that it had been told the day before that the respondent was likely to go into liquidation, but found that it was not in liquidation and remained active on the Companies House register. Because the respondent did not attend, the tribunal found that it failed to discharge the onus of proving the reason for dismissal and entered judgment for unfair dismissal.

The claims for no redundancy pay and no notice pay were withdrawn by the claimant and were dismissed on that basis. The tribunal then dealt with remedy for the unfair dismissal under the Recoupment Regulations.

For remedy, the tribunal used a gross weekly pay figure of £426.92 and 15 years' service to calculate a basic award of £9,605.70. It assessed the compensatory award at £9,599.98 for 26 weeks from 19 May 2022, the dismissal date, to 18 November 2022. In explaining that loss, the tribunal noted that the claimant was unwell until mid-July 2022, then looked for work after disclosure of the dismissal but did not obtain any, started fostering by 28 August 2022 without payment, and said she was unlikely to work again.

The tribunal also awarded £500 for loss of statutory industrial rights. The total award was £19,705.68, of which the prescribed element was £9,599.98 and the balance was £10,105.70.