Claimant v John v Kingly Solicitors Ltd T/a Coles Solicitors (in voluntary liquidation) — 2021

Ms V John had worked for the Respondent solicitors' practice since 11 March 2014. On 12 August 2020 the Solicitors Regulation Authority intervened, all offices closed immediately, and the Claimant was dismissed by reason of redundancy without warning, consultation, or notice. The tribunal accepted that her contract entitled her to 3 months' notice and 25 days' annual leave for the leave year, and it also found that she had been paid on or about the 25th of each month from April 2020 onwards.

The redundancy payment claim was dismissed because the Claimant accepted that she had already received a statutory redundancy payment from the Redundancy Payments Service. The breach of contract claim succeeded in respect of notice pay and accrued but untaken holiday: the tribunal found that she was entitled to compensation for 2.6 weeks' notice loss before starting new employment on 1 September 2020, plus employer pension contributions for that period, and for 8.5 days' untaken holiday at her gross daily rate.

The unlawful deduction from wages claim also succeeded for the unpaid period from 1 August 2020 to 12 August 2020, together with the related employer pension contributions. The unfair dismissal claim succeeded because the dismissal was procedurally unfair, but the basic award was extinguished by the statutory redundancy payment and the compensatory award was reduced by 100% under Polkey because the tribunal found that the Claimant would have been dismissed for redundancy on 12 August 2020 even if a fair procedure had been followed. The tribunal refused any ACAS uplift and recorded a total award of £1,003.40.