Case 2414720/2019 · Employment Tribunal
Ms MJ Stephens v Payswell Limited — 2020
- Case reference
- 2414720/2019
- Decision date
- 20 March 2020
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Judge
- Employment Judge Phil Allen
- Venue
- Manchester
Parties
2 namedClaimant
Ms MJ Stephens
Respondent
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningMs MJ Stephens appeared in person and the respondent was not represented. The tribunal upheld four monetary claims before considering dismissal: an unauthorised deduction from wages for £2,205.24, breach of contract for unpaid expenses of £58.20, and accrued but untaken annual leave under regulation 14 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 valued at £1,371.04.
It also found that the respondent breached its duty to provide a statement of employment particulars and made an award equal to four weeks' pay, recorded as £1,855.48. The tribunal then found that the claimant had been unfairly dismissed, because the principal reason for dismissal was that she asserted a statutory right, namely that there had been an unlawful deduction from her wages, within section 104 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
On remedy, the tribunal recorded that the respondent failed to follow the ACAS code of practice on discipline and grievance procedures when dismissing the claimant. It considered it just and equitable to increase the compensatory award for unfair dismissal by 25%, and ordered a compensatory award of £17,203.50. The sums were ordered to be paid within 14 days of the judgment.
Claims and outcomes
5 findings recorded| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unlawful deduction from wages | The tribunal found the respondent had made an unauthorised deduction from wages and ordered payment of the gross sum of £2,205.24. | Upheld | — | £2,205 |
| Breach of contract | The tribunal found a breach of contract in the respondent's failure to reimburse expenses and awarded £58.20 in damages. | Upheld | — | £58 |
| Holiday pay | The tribunal found the respondent had failed to pay accrued but untaken annual leave due under regulation 14 of the Working Time Regulations 1998. | Upheld | — | £1,371 |
| Other | The tribunal found the respondent was in breach of its duty to provide a statement of employment particulars and awarded the claimant four weeks' pay, recorded as £1,855.48. | Upheld | — | £1,855 |
| Unfair dismissal | The tribunal found the claimant was unfairly dismissed because the principal reason for dismissal was that she asserted a statutory right, namely that there had been an unlawful deduction from her wages, under section 104 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. The compensatory award was uplifted by 25% for failure to follow the ACAS code of practice on discipline and grievance procedures. | Upheld | — | £17,204 |
Remedy
Monetary award- Total award
- £22,693
- across all upheld claims
- Compensatory award
- £17,204
- compensatory remedy recorded
Legal tests applied
3 references- section 104 of the Employment Rights Act 1996
- regulation 14 of the Working Time Regulations 1998
- ACAS code of practice on discipline and grievance procedures
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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