Mr P Wilson (counsel) For the v Mr Zabeer Hussain T/a The Village Cleaners — 2020

Miss E Cartlidge brought complaints of unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal after her dismissal following about nine years' employment by Mr Zabeer Hussain t/a The Village Cleaners. The respondent filed a response but did not attend the hearing, and the response had been struck out for failure to comply with directions. The tribunal proceeded under Rule 21 and found there was sufficient information on the file to determine the claims in the claimant's favour. It also found that the respondent was the employer at all material times.

On liability, the tribunal held that both complaints were well founded and succeeded. It relied on the claimant's witness statement and documentary material, including communications from the respondent as employer. No contrary evidence was advanced because the respondent did not attend or challenge the strike-out.

On remedy, the tribunal heard evidence from the claimant about her losses. It found she had nine years' continuous employment, worked four hours per day, four days per week, and had not found replacement work. It accepted that her lost earnings to the date of hearing, and for at least a further six months, were attributable to the dismissal, and it found no evidence that she had failed to mitigate those losses. The tribunal applied the statutory cap of 52 weeks' pay to the compensatory award, noted that uplifts for failure to comply with the ACAS Code and failure to provide written particulars of employment were sought, and calculated the awards using weekly pay of £131.36. It awarded a basic award of £1,773.36 and a compensatory award of £6,830.72, making a total judgment sum of £8,604.08. It recorded that wrongful dismissal damages were subsumed within those awards to avoid double recovery, and that the recoupment regulations did not apply.