Case 2405786/2019 · Employment Tribunal
Mr W Johnson v New horizons — 2021
- Case reference
- 2405786/2019
- Decision date
- 25 January 2021
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Judge
- Employment Judge Shotter
- Panel members
- Ms L Heath, Ms P Owen
Parties
2 namedClaimant
Mr W Johnson
Respondent
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningThe claimant was employed as a residential child care worker and the tribunal found his employment started on 5 December 2018. It accepted that concerns had arisen early in his probation about sleeping on duty, use of his mobile phone, and other conduct issues, and found Kathryn Forshaw had already decided to dismiss before the events of 13 to 14 January 2019. The claimant was orally dismissed on 14 January 2019, and the later letter confirmed dismissal with effect from that date.
Claims and outcomes
4 findings recorded| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breach of contract | Notice pay / wrongful dismissal claim. The tribunal found the claimant started employment on 5 December 2018, had over one month of service, and was entitled to one week’s notice. It rejected gross misconduct as a basis for withholding notice and ordered payment of £338.40 gross less tax and national insurance. | Upheld | — | £338 |
| Whistleblowing | Claim under section 103A ERA 1996. It was dismissed for want of jurisdiction because it was presented out of time, and alternatively because the police call was about the young person’s behaviour rather than a protected disclosure about the respondent. The tribunal also found the dismissal was for conduct/performance and not because of the call to the police. | Dismissed | — | — |
| Race discrimination | The tribunal extended time on a just and equitable basis so the claim could proceed, but dismissed it on the merits. It found no primary facts from which to infer less favourable treatment because of race, and held the claimant would have been treated the same as a hypothetical white comparator in the same material circumstances. | Dismissed | Race | — |
| Unlawful deduction from wages | The tribunal found the claimant had been paid for Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year work in accordance with the contract and the timesheets. It rejected the claim for further arrears or a higher rate and found no unlawful deduction of wages. | Dismissed | — | — |
Remedy
Monetary award- Total award
- £338
- across all upheld claims
Legal tests applied
11 references- Shamoon comparator test
- Igen burden of proof
- Madarassy threshold
- Hendricks continuing act test
- Cavendish Munro disclosure test
- Kilraine information/tends to show
- Chesterton Global / Nurmohamed public interest test
- Abernethy principal reason test
- Fecitt causation test
- Greg May v Dring
- Camden Primary Care Trust v Atchoe
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.
Named in this case and want it removed? Submit a takedown request. The page will be withdrawn on receipt and the editor will follow up within five working days.