Mr M Grzesik v West Ldn Limited, Trading As Plate Restaurant And Bar (In voluntary liquidation) — 2022

The claimant worked as a Breakfast Chef from 17 February 2014 until 30 November 2020, when he was dismissed by reason of redundancy. The hearing on 2 March 2022 took place by CVP, the respondent did not attend, and it did not submit an ET3, produce documents, or call evidence. The claimant's original claims for redundancy pay, notice pay and holiday pay were treated as withdrawn after he confirmed that he had received sums from the Insolvency Service.

The tribunal dismissed the claims for unlawful deductions and breach of contract apart from the protective award. It found that the September to November 2020 wages had in fact been paid through the Insolvency Service, so that claim was not well founded. It also held that the claimed loss of universal credit for December 2020 was not recoverable as damages for breach of contract, because the inability to claim universal credit was not caused by the respondent's breach. The separate claim about reductions in universal credit payments in May, June and August 2021 failed because universal credit was not wages for ERA 1996 purposes and the reduction was not directly caused by the respondent. The £150 claim for knives and uniform items was dismissed because there was no contractual provision requiring their return, and the tribunal said the proper forum was the Insolvency Practitioner. The claim for stress and inconvenience was also dismissed because the tribunal held that it had no jurisdiction to award that compensation.

The claimant applied by email on 24 February 2022 to add a protective award claim under s.189 TULRCA 1992. Applying Selkent, and noting that the new claim arose from the same facts as the ET1 and caused no prejudice to the absent respondent, the tribunal allowed the amendment. On the merits it found that the respondent proposed to dismiss 20 or more employees, had not appointed representatives, and had not consulted for at least 30 days; it accepted that no consultation at all had taken place. The tribunal therefore made a declaration under s.188 and awarded 90 days' gross pay. Using the claimant's gross annual salary of £27,000, it calculated the protective award at £9,346.15.