Ms Chloe Murray v Cale Nursing Home and 1 other — 2021

The tribunal determined the case under Rule 21 on the basis of the papers, including the claimant's witness statement and a 58-page bundle, because no response had been presented. The claims against the first respondent were dismissed on withdrawal, and the remaining claims proceeded against the second respondent alone.

The claimant had started work at Cale Green Nursing Home on 20 November 2013. Her contract was transferred under TUPE, her pay rose to £10.50 per hour, and the tribunal accepted that she earned an average gross weekly pay of £504 and net weekly pay of £412.72. It found that she became pregnant, took maternity leave at the end of February 2020, and that her employment ended on 29 May 2020 when the nursing home closed.

On that basis, the tribunal found the unfair dismissal, redundancy payment, wrongful dismissal and unpaid holiday claims well-founded. It found that the claimant had been unfairly dismissed, was entitled to a statutory redundancy payment of £3,528 and seven weeks' notice pay of £2,889.04 net, and was owed 3.7 days' unpaid holiday worth £305.44 net. The compensatory award element of unfair dismissal was left for a later remedy hearing.

The tribunal also found that the respondent had breached its collective information and consultation obligations under section 188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 before the proposed redundancy dismissal took effect. It made a protective award under section 189 for the claimant for the maximum protected period of 90 days beginning on 29 May 2020, and noted that the Employment Protection (Recoupment of Jobseeker's Allowance and Income Support) Regulations 1996 may apply. The direct sex discrimination, maternity discrimination and unauthorised deduction of wages claims were not finally determined and were adjourned to later hearings.