Pamela Alty v Links Waste Management Ltd. t/a JM Waste Management — 2022

The tribunal found that the claimant became an employee of Links Waste Management Ltd from 29 April 2019 under an oral agreement made on 26 April 2019 for fixed hours and pay, despite the absence of a written contract and the fact that payroll only began on 10 June 2019. Applying the Ready Mixed Concrete approach, it held that the reality of the relationship from 29 April 2019 was employer and employee. It also rejected the illegality point about the cash expenses arrangement, finding the parties had acted in good faith and that Patel v Mirza would not bar relief.

On continuity, the tribunal held that the move between Links Waste Management Ltd and The Work Cafe Ltd did not break service because the companies were associated within section 218(6) ERA 1996. Links controlled The Work Cafe directly through shareholding and indirectly through Mr Stone's control of both companies, and in each move the claimant started with the successor employer on the next working day. That meant she had the continuous service needed for unfair dismissal and redundancy pay purposes.

The tribunal found that the dismissal on 1 June 2021 was unfair. Although the dismissal letter referred to a restructure, the tribunal accepted Mr Stone's evidence that this was not the real reason. The principal reason was that he considered the claimant no longer to be an 'A' player after he had been told she was looking for other work and had asked for a reference. The tribunal rejected the suggestion that she was attending interviews in work time, held that looking for other work was not misconduct, and said that even if the matter were treated as SOSR or a breakdown in relations, the dismissal was still unfair because there had been no warning, no proper meeting, no chance to respond or improve, no consideration of alternatives and no appeal.

For remedy, the tribunal awarded a basic award of £1,174.50 and a compensatory award of £3,809.67 for unfair dismissal. It found that the claimant took reasonable steps to mitigate her loss, but concluded that there was a 50% chance she would have left later when she obtained the Castle Accommodation role, so later losses were reduced on a just and equitable basis. The tribunal also applied a 10% ACAS uplift because of failures in the disciplinary and grievance process, a section 38 Employment Act 2002 uplift for failure to provide written particulars, and then reduced the unfair dismissal award by 10% for contributory fault.

The notice pay claim succeeded because the claimant should have had two weeks' notice but only received one week, so the tribunal ordered £385.31 net after the ACAS uplift. The holiday pay claim succeeded because the tribunal found that 20 days from the 2020-2021 leave year could be carried over due to coronavirus, then deducted 1.4 days already taken and applied the uplift, resulting in £1,433.43 net. The written statement claim also succeeded and was valued at two weeks' pay, £700.56 net. The redundancy pay claim was dismissed, and the pension-contribution and May 2021 unlawful-deduction complaints were withdrawn and dismissed upon withdrawal. The recorded awards sum to £7,503.47.