Mrs Rebecca Winkworth Mrs Shirley Rosan v West Ewell Stores Ltd (in voluntary liquidation) — 2021

Mrs Winkworth and Mrs Rosan worked at the West Ewell store, and their contracts transferred to West Ewell Stores Ltd under TUPE in August 2018. On 18 July 2020 Mr Nadarajah sent Mrs Winkworth a message saying the shop would close the following day because of turnover and that staff should find alternative opportunities. No further response was received. The respondent filed no ET3 and did not attend, so the judge heard the claims on the evidence and documents supplied by the claimants under Rule 21.

The tribunal found the claims for unfair dismissal, redundancy payment, notice pay, holiday pay and breach of contract well-founded. It accepted that both claimants had more than 12 years' continuous employment and were entitled to 12 weeks' notice under s.86(1) ERA 1996. The dismissal was treated as a redundancy situation under s.139 ERA 1996, but the tribunal also found the dismissals unfair under s.98(4) ERA 1996. Holiday pay was assessed under the Working Time Regulations, including reg 14(3)(b) and reg 13(5).

For remedy, the judge calculated weekly pay at £323 for Mrs Winkworth and £293 for Mrs Rosan. Basic awards of £4,522 and £8,790 were made. The tribunal also awarded notice pay of £3,876 and £3,516, holiday pay of £452 and £545, future loss of £400 and £200, and loss of statutory rights of £350 and £400. Mrs Winkworth had started another job on 1 August 2020, while Mrs Rosan had continued to receive JSA. After deducting redundancy payments already received of £1,575 and £11,776.74, the orders made were £7,825 to Mrs Winkworth and £1,674.26 to Mrs Rosan.