Mr D Byrne v Advanced Plant Hire Ltd — 2023

At a CVP hearing in Manchester on 15 December 2023 before Employment Judge Barker, with the claimant appearing in person and the respondent not attending, the tribunal upheld the wages complaint. It found unauthorised deductions from wages for the period 13 January 2023 to 10 February 2023, said the claimant had not received proper payment during that period, and ordered £2,399.20 after crediting £200 already paid.

The tribunal also upheld the notice pay and holiday pay claims. It found that the claimant's employment ended on 10 February 2023, which it treated as the last day of contact with the respondent, and awarded £1,949.40 for three weeks' notice pay calculated on gross pay. On holiday pay, it found that in the 12 months up to 10 February 2023 the claimant had not been allowed to exercise the right to paid annual leave under the Working Time Regulations 1998, with 28 days or 5.6 weeks accrued but untaken, and awarded £3,638.88.

On redundancy, the tribunal found that the site where the claimant worked had closed and that the work offered by the respondent was not suitable alternative employment, so the claimant was made redundant. It awarded a statutory redundancy payment of £2,569.50 under section 163 Employment Rights Act 1996, based on three years' service and the claimant being age 60 on the termination date had proper notice been given. The tribunal then found the claimant had been unfairly dismissed, stated that the dismissal was by reason of redundancy, and said that an uplift for failure to comply with the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures 2015 did not apply.

For unfair dismissal, the tribunal awarded £34,420 subject to recoupment. It recorded a nil basic award because a statutory redundancy payment had been awarded, and said the compensatory award was made up of £21,074 for past loss of earnings to the hearing and £13,364 for future loss to 15 June 2024. The recoupment provisions applied because the claimant had received Universal Credit from April 2023. Separately, the tribunal awarded £1,299.60 under section 38 of the Employment Act 2002 for failure to provide written particulars, and said the claimant's pension issue was outside the tribunal's jurisdiction.