Ms R Head v Mrs J Head — 2022

The tribunal issued its judgment on an undefended basis after the respondent failed to present a valid response and did not comply fully with an unless order. It accepted that the claimant’s employment began on 17 November 2017, that her contracted hours were 12.5 per week, and that a flat £5 weekly petrol payment formed part of her wages, giving a weekly pay figure of £116.38.

On wages and holiday pay, the tribunal found that the claimant had not been paid for the period from 25 May 2021 to 28 June 2021, a period of five weeks, and awarded £581.90 for unlawful deductions from wages. It also found that she had 20.09 hours of untaken holiday at the end of employment and awarded £187.11 under the Working Time Regulations 1998.

The tribunal found that the claimant was dismissed on 29 June 2021 without notice, after text messages in which she queried non-payment of wages and the respondent replied that a new PA had been obtained. It rejected any suggestion that the claimant had resigned. On that basis it awarded 4 weeks' notice pay for breach of contract and held that the dismissal was unfair because the respondent could not show a potentially fair reason under s.98 ERA 1996, and in any event had produced no evidence.

For remedy, the tribunal fixed the basic award at £465.52 because the claimant was 39 and had four complete years of service. It awarded a compensatory award of £2,112.08, made up of £1,862.08 for 16 weeks' loss of earnings and £250 for loss of statutory rights, and then applied a 10% uplift under s.207A TULRCA 1992 to the breach of contract damages and the compensatory award because no process had been followed before dismissal. It also upheld the s.92 ERA 1996 complaint for failure to provide written reasons, awarding two weeks' pay of £232.76, and noted that the Recoupment Regulations did not apply because the claimant’s Universal Credit position had not changed.