Mr F Domingues v Perfect Five Studio Ltd — 2020

The tribunal dealt first with the respondent's late-response application and postponement request. It rejected the attempt to rely on draft grounds of resistance without completed ET3 forms, but allowed the respondent to participate in the hearing under Rule 21(3) and refused to postpone the hearing.

On the facts, the claimant had been employed as Sales Manager/PR & Marketing Assistant from 16 August 2019 on a base salary of £24,000 per annum, with a contractual entitlement to eight weeks' written notice. The store closed on 20 January 2020. The tribunal accepted the claimant's evidence that he had not been given oral notice in mid-December 2019 and had not been told that the store closure would itself end his employment. It preferred that evidence to the respondent's later email of 4 February 2020, which it said was not contemporaneous and did not establish that oral notice had been given.

The tribunal found that the claimant was dismissed by email on 28 January 2020, attaching his final payslip and P45, and that he had not been given any earlier written or oral notice of termination. Because the respondent did not pay salary for 21-28 January 2020, the tribunal held that there had been an unlawful deduction from wages under section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and awarded £461.54 gross.

For notice pay, the tribunal held that the contract required written notice and there was no agreed variation allowing oral notice. It also found that the respondent had not made a payment in lieu of notice under the contract. The tribunal therefore held that the respondent breached the contract of employment and awarded damages of £3,692.32, assessed by reference to eight weeks' base salary. The total award was £4,153.86.