Mr M Williams v Swansway Garages Limited — 2022

Mr Williams worked for Swansway Garages Limited from 4 February 2019 as a Sales Executive. After being furloughed in March 2020 and returning to work in June 2020, he queried his June payslip and raised concerns with Mr P Metcalfe, payroll and Mr Smith that he had been underpaid by about £1,500 in relation to furlough pay and commission. The tribunal found that, through those discussions and the email chain of 16 and 17 June 2020, he alleged that the respondent had infringed his statutory right not to suffer an unauthorised deduction from wages, and that he did so in good faith.

The respondent argued that the dismissal was redundancy, or alternatively that the claimant’s tone and conduct justified selection. The tribunal rejected redundancy as the principal reason: there was no documentary record of a redundancy consultation or selection process for the claimant, less than two years’ service was not an absolute criterion, other employees with short service remained employed, and recruitment had occurred at the claimant’s branch. It accepted the claimant’s evidence that on 20 July 2020 he was told his employment was ending because of the tone of his emails about furlough money and because the directors could not work with him in the future.

Applying section 104 ERA 1996, the tribunal concluded that the principal reason for dismissal was the claimant’s assertion that a relevant statutory right had been infringed. It refused the respondent’s strike-out application arising from the claimant’s conversation during the hearing, held that there was no Polkey reduction because it could not assess with confidence that he would have been fairly dismissed anyway, and found no contributory fault. The reasons state that the claimant should be awarded losses up to the final hearing on 26 January 2022, but the extracted text does not record a quantified award.