In person For the v Mrs P Callaghan - Director — 2020

Mr Malcolm Henderson and PB Structural Engineering Ltd had no written contract. The tribunal found that from 1 July 2018 the claimant was an employee, paid a salary of £1,800 per month for about two days' work per week, and that the only live issue on his claim was whether there was a contractual entitlement to a bonus. The claimant relied on a 4 May 2018 email referring to a "proposal" for a bonus, but the tribunal found that the question of a bonus was discussed without any agreement on how it would be paid, when it would be paid, or what conditions would apply.

Applying ordinary contract principles of agreement, intention to create legal relations, consideration, and certainty of terms, the tribunal held that no contractual bonus term existed. It therefore dismissed the claimant's claim, which was pleaded as breach of contract/unauthorised deductions from wages in relation to bonus payments.

The respondent's counterclaim relied on alleged implied terms concerning confidentiality, disruption of the business, withholding customer information, competition, solicitation of customers, and misuse of property. The tribunal held that there were no express restrictive covenants or confidentiality terms in the parties' arrangement, that duties of fidelity and confidentiality did not continue after employment ended save for trade secrets, and that no trade secrets were in issue. It also found no evidence of breaches of fidelity while the claimant was employed, and no evidence of pre-exit solicitation of clients.

On that basis the tribunal dismissed the respondent's counterclaim as well. The judgment records that there was significant bad feeling between the parties, but that did not alter the contractual analysis or the outcome.