Mr L Norman v LPW (Europe) Limited — 2021

Mr Norman had been made redundant and given 12 weeks' notice, expiring on 20 March 2020. He was off sick throughout the notice period and received statutory sick pay only. At an earlier hearing on his redundancy-payment claim, Judge Elgot had observed that his notice pay had not been correct, and Mr Norman said he was told he would need to bring a new claim without delay.

Employment Judge Housego accepted Mr Norman's evidence that he did not know, before 24 November 2020, that he should have been paid full pay during the notice period. The tribunal found that he had no reason to suspect an error, that he contacted the respondent on 26, 28 and 30 November 2020 without receiving a substantive response, that he began early conciliation on 3 December 2020, and that he issued the claim on the day he received the EC certificate. Applying the approach in Lowri Beck Services Ltd v Brophy [2019] EWCA Civ 2490, the tribunal held that it was not reasonably practicable to present the claim within the primary time limit and that it was brought within a further reasonable period.

The respondent accepted in discussion that the correct notice pay should have been full pay and that SSP had been paid in error. The tribunal concluded that Mr Norman was entitled to expect his employer to pay the correct amount, that he was not to be criticised for not checking the position earlier, and that the claim therefore succeeded. It awarded £4,467, calculated as gross notice pay of £5,598 less £1,482 already received; the tribunal noted that the payment would not be run through payroll and that Mr Norman would have to account for any tax due.