Case 2405600/2021 · Employment Tribunal
Mr A Bulman v Mr Dean Fearon (T/A Dean Fearon Builders) — 2021
- Case reference
- 2405600/2021
- Decision date
- 15 October 2021
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Judge
- Employment Judge Dunlop Representation
- Venue
- Manchester
Parties
2 namedClaimant
Mr A Bulman
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningThe tribunal accepted that Mr Bulman had been employed personally by Mr Dean Fearon, and amended the respondent title to Mr Dean Fearon (T/A Dean Fearon Builders). It found the claimant's unlawful deduction from wages claim for the period 17 September 2019 to 7 December 2020 well founded and ordered payment of £3,258 gross.
The claimant's automatic unfair dismissal claim under s104 Employment Rights Act 1996 also succeeded. The tribunal awarded a basic award of £164 and a compensatory award of £5,315.59, made up of past net earnings of £3,228.17, loss arising from delayed completion of the apprenticeship of £1,587.42, and £500 for loss of statutory rights. It also applied a 20% uplift of £963.12 to the loss of earnings element because the respondent failed to follow the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinaries and grievances, bringing the total compensation for unfair dismissal to £6,442.71.
The claim that the dismissal breached the common law apprenticeship contract was also well founded, but no separate award was made because those losses were fully subsumed within the unfair dismissal compensation. The claims for failure to provide a statement under s1 Employment Rights Act 1996 and for failure to provide itemised pay statements both succeeded, with awards of £586.94 each. The Employment Protection (Recoupment of Benefits) Regulations 1996 were held not to apply.
Claims and outcomes
5 findings recorded| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unlawful deduction from wages | Gross sum ordered for the period 17 September 2019 to 7 December 2020. | Upheld | — | £3,258 |
| Unfair dismissal | Automatic unfair dismissal under s104 Employment Rights Act 1996 (assertion of statutory rights); the sum includes a basic award of £164, a compensatory award of £5,315.59, and a 20% uplift of £963.12. | Upheld | — | £6,443 |
| Breach of contract | The dismissal was held to be in breach of the common law apprenticeship contract, but no separate award was made because the losses were fully subsumed within the unfair dismissal compensation. | Upheld | — | — |
| Other | Failure to provide a statement under s1 Employment Rights Act 1996; awarded two weeks' net pay. | Upheld | — | £587 |
| Other | Failure to provide itemised pay statements; awarded two weeks' net pay. | Upheld | — | £587 |
Remedy
Monetary award- Total award
- £10,875
- across all upheld claims
- Basic award
- £164
- statutory, unfair dismissal
- Compensatory award
- £5,316
- compensatory remedy recorded
Legal tests applied
4 references- s104 Employment Rights Act 1996
- ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinaries and grievances
- s1 Employment Rights Act 1996
- Employment Protection (Recoupment of Benefits) Regulations 1996
Official outcome judgment PDF
Gov.uk primary recordThe official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.
Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How we got this data
Case essentials (reference, date, judge, venue, country, claim categories) are extracted from the structured metadata gov.uk publishes alongside each decision. Parties and monetary figures are extracted from the judgment PDF text. Key findings and per-claim outcomes require a second extraction pass that is not yet complete for this case — until then, the primary source linked above is the authoritative record. See full methodology.
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