Miss L London v Mohammed Saleem Arif (trading as The Suntrap) — 2022

Miss L London had been employed by Mohammed Saleem Arif, trading as The Suntrap, from 17 January 2017. On 17 February 2022 the respondent sent text messages after being told by a relative that the claimant's ex-partner had paid someone £50 to burn the respondent's car. The tribunal found that the first text message, and the exchange read as a whole, amounted to an express dismissal with immediate effect. It rejected the respondent's case that the claimant had been reinstated by a later message offering that she could work the next morning if she wanted to.

The tribunal found that the respondent's reason for dismissal was his belief that the claimant knew her ex-partner was responsible for the damage and had failed to tell him, which he said had delayed identifying the person responsible. It held that this was a conduct reason, but the dismissal was unfair under s.98(4) ERA 1996 because the respondent did not carry out a reasonable investigation, did not speak to the claimant before dismissing her, did not follow any disciplinary procedure, and did not comply with the ACAS Code. The tribunal accepted that the claimant was not contributorily at fault and that there was no Polkey reduction.

On remedy, the tribunal found that the claimant had five years' continuous service and weekly pay of £106, producing a basic award of £530. Her loss of earnings from 25 March 2022 until starting new employment on 20 June 2022 was assessed at £1,317.43, from which the £530 redundancy payment already made was deducted, leaving a compensatory award of £817.43. The separate complaint under s.93 ERA 1996 for failure to provide written reasons also succeeded, and two weeks' pay of £212 was awarded. A 25% ACAS uplift was applied to the total award, producing a final award of £1,949.29; the prescribed element was £817.43 and the excess over that amount was £1,131.86.