Mr J Heard For the v Ms L Veale — 2019

Ms Indrani Gungadin worked for R&B Management Services Limited as Manager/Company Secretary/Finance Controller from 2009 until she resigned on 15 October 2019. The tribunal found that the monthly £600 paid via IL Consultants into her Mauritian account from around January 2011 to August 2019 was part of her wages for work done for the Respondent, so she was not paid less than Mr Lingden and Mr Cox because of sex. It also found that the alleged May/June 2019 remark that a co-director could marry her because she was a single mother was not made.

On the other sex discrimination and harassment allegations, the tribunal found that Dr Roh did not say that she could get another job easily, did not mishandle any grievance as alleged, and did not make the alleged 'single mother' or 'take maternity leave' remarks on 14 October 2019. Where Dr Roh did email her about a 'trick' and about short-notice absence in September 2019, the tribunal held that those messages were prompted by her apparent attempt to engineer a redundancy payment or early departure and were not related to sex or capable of amounting to harassment. The allegation that he accused her of theft on 15 October 2019 also failed: he asked for explanations about the Rohmir cheques and the account movements, which the tribunal found to be a reasonable investigation.

The constructive unfair dismissal claim failed because the tribunal found no breach of the implied term of trust and confidence. It accepted that Dr Roh had reasonable grounds to investigate the Respondent's finances after discovering unexplained cash withdrawals and other payments, and found proven unauthorised expenditure totalling £7,428.67, including salary advances, unauthorised overtime, cash withdrawals and Rohmir cheque cashing. The unlawful deduction claim failed because the final October wages and holiday pay were lawfully withheld under clause 5.2 of the contract, and the amounts owed by the Claimant exceeded the sums deducted.