Mr S Liberadzki (Counsel) For v Charalambous v Venturespring Ltd — 2018

The claimant worked for Venturespring Limited as Commercial Director from 27 June 2016 until 30 November 2017. The respondent did not enter a response or attend, but the tribunal still tested the claimant’s evidence against her statement, schedule of loss and documents. It recorded that a document in the file satisfied the Part 1 ERA 1996 obligation to provide written particulars, so that claim was withdrawn and dismissed on withdrawal. The claimant also withdrew her separate claim to a shareholding in the respondent, which was not dismissed.

On the financial claims, the tribunal accepted the claimant’s evidence that she had been underpaid salary, commission, holiday pay and expenses. It found that, by the end of November 2017, the sums due were £15,421.30 in arrears of wages, £5,538.42 in outstanding holiday pay, £37,394.08 in unpaid commission and £2,327.91 in unpaid expenses. The judgment treated those amounts as gross sums before PAYE and awarded them in full.

On dismissal, the tribunal found that the claimant resigned because the respondent was in fundamental breach of contract through persistent non-payment and that the principal reason for her dismissal was her repeated assertion that the withholding of salary and other payments was unlawful. It therefore held that she had been automatically unfairly dismissed by constructive dismissal under s.104 ERA 1996, with no basic award because she had not completed two years’ service. The compensatory award was based on projected future loss of earnings, uplifted by 25% because the grievance process had been disregarded, and then grossed up; the final compensatory award was £36,249.92. The total ordered payable to the claimant, subject to deductions required by law, was £96,931.63.