Mr D Moore v P A Aesthetics Ltd — 2019

The respondent did not attend the hearing. It had filed a response asserting that Mr Moore was not an employee but a shareholder and disputing dismissal, including an allegation that he had resigned. The tribunal accepted Mr Moore's evidence as frank and credible, and noted that he supported it with text messages between himself and the respondent.

The tribunal found that Mr Moore worked for the respondent from 5 April 2016 until his summary dismissal on 6 August 2018. He was both a shareholder and an employee, paid a salary of £1,000 a month under a contract of employment, and was managed by Mr Willoughby, including in relation to annual leave. On 3 August 2018 Mr Skwria told him to take the day off and meet the next day, and on 6 August 2018 Mr Willoughby sent a text saying that a conclusion had to be reached and that returning to work and pretending everything was fine was not an option.

The tribunal held that this ended the employment relationship there and then. It found that Mr Moore was dismissed without notice or procedure, that no potentially fair reason for dismissal had been established, and that the dismissal was procedurally unfair because ACAS guidelines had not been followed. The conclusions section refers once to 6 August 2019, but the chronology and findings otherwise identify the dismissal as having occurred on 6 August 2018.

Although the dismissal was unfair, the tribunal also found that the company ceased trading and that Mr Moore would in any event have been dismissed by reason of redundancy within a few days. It therefore awarded a redundancy payment of £750, two weeks' notice pay of £500 net, and £500 net for two weeks of untaken and unpaid annual leave, producing a total award of £1,750.