Miss Linda Rawlings v Knightsbridge Property Management Limited — 2021

The claimant started work in December 2011 for South Kensington Management Ltd as a receptionist and administrative assistant. Her salary later moved through Vantage Estates Ltd and, from 2016, was paid from an account referencing Knightsbridge Property Management. The tribunal accepted evidence that Ms Fife issued a 4 July 2018 letter on the respondent's headed paper confirming permanent employment, and it rejected the respondent's case that it was merely providing a payroll service for an unidentified true employer. It found that, from 2016, the claimant was employed by the respondent and that continuity ran back to her original employment under s.218(2) ERA 1996. The tribunal also accepted that Mr William Stern had granted a £3,000 per annum pay rise in 2017.

On 7 April 2020 Mr Andrew Stern told the claimant that she had no job and that she was to be made redundant. The tribunal accepted that the dismissal arose in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and that there was a redundancy situation within s.139 ERA 1996 because the respondent's need for work of the kind the claimant did had diminished. It also recorded that the claimant's last salary instalment traced to the respondent was £1,881.33 paid on 15 March 2020.

The redundancy pay claim succeeded because it was presented in time. By contrast, the holiday pay, wrongful dismissal/notice pay and unpaid wages claims were dismissed as out of time. The tribunal applied the s.111(2)(b) ERA 1996 'reasonably practicable' test and accepted that the claimant had been ill with Covid-19 for a period, but held that this did not prevent presentation within the relevant time limits. It also held that waiting for payment to be arranged, or for advice from Citizens Advice or ACAS, did not make late presentation reasonable on the facts found. The amount of the redundancy payment was not determined in this judgment and was listed for a further remedy hearing on 17 December 2021.