Mr C Graham First v MHD Builders Ltd Second Respondent: Gareth Hyne — 2020

The tribunal found that an oral contract had been formed by 24 June 2019 at the latest. The claimant had applied for an apprentice joiner role, was interviewed, was offered the apprenticeship on the terms in the advert and interview, and accepted it. The tribunal held that the agreement was a common-law contract of apprenticeship, not an English Approved Apprenticeship Agreement, because no prescribed statutory form had been completed or even mentioned.

When the First Respondent later told the claimant that he was not being taken on because it had lost work, the tribunal held that this was a wrongful termination of the apprenticeship contract. It accepted that a contract of apprenticeship is not normally terminable on notice. Damages were limited to the loss proved on the evidence: £156 per week from 2 September 2019 until April 2020, when the claimant took supermarket work and mitigated his loss, giving an award of £5,408 against the First Respondent only.

The tribunal also upheld the claim of direct age discrimination arising from the Second Respondent's email of 27 August 2019. It found that the email threatened to damage the claimant's prospects by contacting employers in the construction industry, and that age was a significant and dominant influence in the making of that threat, as shown by the reference to the claimant having 'a lot of maturing up to do'. The tribunal held that the conduct was less favourable treatment because of age and that it arose out of and was closely connected to the former contractual relationship within section 108 Equality Act 2010.

For injury to feelings, the tribunal placed the case in the lower Vento band and awarded £2,500. It said the email had a demoralising effect and knocked the claimant's confidence about pursuing joinery work. The age discrimination award was made jointly and severally against both respondents; the breach of contract damages were payable by the First Respondent only.