Mr F Quayum v Firstsource Solutions Ltd — 2020

Mr F Quayum brought one claim of wrongful dismissal arising out of the termination of his employment with Firstsource Solutions (UK) Ltd on 23 April 2019. The tribunal recorded that his contract provided for one week’s notice and that the respondent’s AWOL policy required welfare contact and a warning letter before disciplinary action. The issue was whether the respondent was entitled to dismiss without notice because of an alleged repudiatory breach of contract.

The tribunal found that the claimant had breached his contract by failing to contact the respondent during his sickness absence from 17 April 2019, despite knowing he was required to do so. However, it found that the respondent did not follow its own AWOL process and that there was no evidence of the welfare call or written warning contemplated by the policy. The tribunal also found that the respondent had not treated the earlier customer-call conduct as a repudiatory breach: after the 2 April investigation the claimant was not suspended and was allowed to continue working.

On that basis, the tribunal held that the claimant’s failure to make contact over the short period of absence did not amount to a repudiatory breach justifying summary dismissal. It accepted that the claimant may have failed his probation, but concluded that the dismissal was not lawful as a dismissal without notice. The claimant’s wrongful dismissal claim therefore succeeded.

The parties agreed that the net notice pay due if the claim succeeded was £292.38, and the tribunal ordered the respondent to pay that sum, subject to the appropriate tax deductions. The judgment recorded that the claimant’s claim was limited to one week’s unpaid notice pay and did not include other wages or sick pay claims.