Mrs Lee-Shields v Exquisite Displays Limited — 2024

The claimant, a coverer with 19 years' service at a small jewellery-display manufacturer, resigned on 10 March 2022 after a series of incidents culminating in comments made by a director about her great-grandson, X, for whom she was a carer. The tribunal accepted that the employer's conduct on 10 March 2022 amounted to a repudiatory breach of the implied term of trust and confidence and that the claimant resigned in response to that breach. The claim of constructive unfair dismissal therefore succeeded; the separate claim of unpaid holiday pay failed and was dismissed because neither party had evidenced the leave position.

On remedy, the tribunal declined to make a Polkey reduction based on the prospect of fair dismissal, finding the prospect negligible, and declined to make any reduction for contributory conduct under sections 122(2) and 123(6) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, considering that the conduct relied on by the respondent arose in the course of the claimant's acceptance of the repudiatory breach. The tribunal did, however, take into account under section 123(1) a real prospect that the claimant would have reduced her hours to part time from around June 2022 in light of the special guardianship order for X, applying a broad-brush 50% chance of a reduction to 50% part-time working.

After those adjustments the losses still exceeded the statutory cap. The total monetary award was £24,725.35, of which £21,979.58 is the prescribed element under the recoupment regulations for the period 10 March 2022 to 17 January 2024, leaving £2,745.77 payable pending the Secretary of State's recoupment determination.