Martin Clark v Stagecarriage Ltd — 2020

Martin Clark was employed by Stagecarriage Ltd from 10 January 2011 until 19 July 2019, when he and other employees were dismissed without notice by reason of redundancy. He presented his claim on 30 December 2019 and the respondent did not file a response, so the tribunal proceeded under Rule 21 of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013.

The tribunal held that the claims for holiday pay, unlawful deduction of wages and breach of contract were presented out of time. The claimant had not obtained the benefit of the section 207B Employment Rights Act 1996 extension because he started Early Conciliation after the primary limitation period had expired, and the tribunal was not satisfied that it had not been reasonably practicable for him to present those claims in time. The claimant said he had not understood that he could bring the claims earlier and had been told by colleagues that he could not claim while the company was still active, but the tribunal nevertheless dismissed those claims for want of jurisdiction.

Although those claims were dismissed, the tribunal recorded that the amounts claimed were due to the claimant. It then found that the redundancy payment claim was in time under section 164 Employment Rights Act 1996 and was well founded on the information provided. Applying the statutory presumption in section 163, the tribunal was satisfied that the dismissal was by reason of redundancy.

For the redundancy payment, the tribunal found that at the date of dismissal the claimant was 34 years old, earned £350 gross per week, and had eight complete years of continuous employment. That produced a statutory redundancy payment of £2,800, which was ordered to be paid to him.