Ms F Jenkins v Interactive Resorts Ltd — 2022

The tribunal found that Ms F Jenkins was employed by Interactive Resorts Ltd from 24 August 2010 and that her role by the end of employment was Sales and Operator Manager. It accepted that her pay had been varied over time, including an agreed reduction to £2,500 for October, November and December 2021 after furlough ended, and that no work was requested of her after that arrangement was made. It rejected the respondent's account that she had been dismissed for gross misconduct on 7 December 2021 or that a disciplinary process had been completed and communicated to her at that time.

The tribunal found that the claimant only became aware that the respondent considered her employment to have ended when she received her P45 on 22 February 2022. Applying the principle in Gisda Cyf v Barratt, it held that the effective date of termination was therefore 22 February 2022. It did not accept the respondent's evidence about the alleged disciplinary letters, finding that they had not been posted and were not reliable evidence of a pre-existing dismissal decision.

On liability, the tribunal held that the respondent had not proved that dismissal was for conduct. It found that the real reason for dismissal was redundancy because, in the period from October 2021 to February 2022, the respondent no longer had a need for sales staff or sales operations management and had not relaunched its business. The tribunal concluded that the respondent had not shown conduct that entitled it to dismiss without notice, so the claims for unfair dismissal, redundancy payment and wrongful dismissal succeeded. It made no basic award and no compensatory award for unfair dismissal, but awarded redundancy pay of £5,984 gross and notice pay of £7,615.30 gross.

The tribunal also upheld the wage and holiday claims. It found unauthorised deductions from wages for unpaid salary from 1 October 2021 to 22 February 2022, rejecting the respondent's attempt to recover commission on cancelled holidays because there was no relevant contractual term and no evidence of the amount allegedly overpaid. It further found a breach of contract for unpaid employer pension contributions, awarding £610.28 net. The Working Time Regulations claim succeeded only for leave accrued in the final leave year, with carry-over from the 2020-2021 leave year rejected because the tribunal was not satisfied that coronavirus made it not reasonably practicable to take the leave. The tribunal awarded £3,149.96 gross for untaken leave. The respondent's counterclaim for recovery of commission was dismissed.