Case 2500088/2022 · Employment Tribunal

Thomas Lowther v Lowther Decorators Limited — 2022

Case reference: 2500088/2022
Decision date: 15 July 2022
Jurisdiction: England & Wales
Judge: Employment Judge Withers Representation

Indexed: 22 May 2026

Parties

2 named

Claimant

Thomas Lowther

Respondent

Lowther Decorators Limited

Key findings

Tribunal's reasoning

In a remote hearing at Newcastle on 14 and 15 July 2022, Employment Judge Withers recorded three separate unauthorised deductions from wages: £3,600 for unpaid wages for 19 November 2021 to 15 December 2021, £315 for unpaid income protection premiums for 1 November 2021 to 15 December 2021, and £2,000 for payment in lieu of accrued but untaken annual leave on termination of employment. The tribunal also found that Lowther Decorators Limited was in breach of contract by dismissing Thomas Lowther without notice and ordered damages of £25,000 for that breach.

The respondent's breach of contract claim against the claimant was dismissed. The tribunal further found that the claimant had been unfairly dismissed and awarded a basic award of £16,048 and a compensatory award of £52,000. The recoupment regulations applied, with a grand total of £68,048, a prescribed element of £4,832 covering 15 December 2021 to 15 July 2022, and an excess over the prescribed element of £63,216.

Claims and outcomes

6 findings recorded

This case has mixed outcomes under at least one legal claim type. A tribunal can uphold some allegations and dismiss others under the same legal head, so rows below may represent separate issues or allegation groups from the judgment.

Claim type	Issue or finding	Outcome	Protected characteristic	Award
Unlawful deduction from wages	Unauthorised deduction from wages for unpaid wages for the period 19 November 2021 to 15 December 2021.	Upheld	—	£3,600
Unlawful deduction from wages	Unauthorised deduction from wages for unpaid income protection premiums for the period 1 November 2021 to 15 December 2021.	Upheld	—	£315
Holiday pay	The judgment describes this as an unauthorised deduction from wages for payment in lieu of accrued but untaken annual leave on termination of employment.	Upheld	—	£2,000
Breach of contract	Breach of contract by dismissing the claimant without notice.	Upheld	—	£25,000
Breach of contract	Respondent's breach of contract claim against the claimant was dismissed.	Dismissed	—	—
Unfair dismissal	The claimant was found to have been unfairly dismissed. The tribunal awarded a basic award of £16,048 and a compensatory award of £52,000. The recoupment regulations applied: grand total £68,048, prescribed element £4,832 for 15 December 2021 to 15 July 2022, excess £63,216.

Remedy

Monetary award

Total award: £68,048; across all upheld claims
Basic award: £16,048; statutory, unfair dismissal
Compensatory award: £52,000; compensatory remedy recorded

Official outcome judgment PDF

Gov.uk primary record

The 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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