Miss Lisa Cornell v Christine Weston and the estate of the late Patrick Weston, formerly trading as Westons Bakery — 2024

The hearing proceeded under Rule 47 of the Employment Tribunal Rules of Procedure 2013 in the absence of both parties, the judge having considered the ET1, ET3 and accompanying documents. The judge first corrected the respondent's name and recorded the background: the respondent business ceased trading after Mr and Mrs Weston sustained life-changing injuries in a car accident in June 2023, and Mr Weston had since died; the response effectively accepted that the debts were owed but explained the respondent had no means to pay.

On the substantive claims, the tribunal found that Miss Cornell, a sales assistant continuously employed from 15 December 2015 to 1 July 2023, was dismissed by reason of redundancy within s.139(1)(a)(i) ERA 1996 and had received no redundancy payment, entitling her to a statutory redundancy payment of £3,409.25 under s.163 ERA 1996. The tribunal further found she had been dismissed with insufficient notice, having been paid one week in lieu when s.86 ERA 1996 entitled her to seven weeks, and awarded £1,948.14 as damages for breach of contract (notice pay), calculated on gross pay to reflect likely Post Employment Notice Pay taxation. The complaints of unauthorised deduction from wages (£400.00) and unpaid accrued holiday pay (£101.60) were both well-founded.

The judge noted it was likely Miss Cornell would have difficulty recovering the debt from the respondent and referred her to s.166(1)(a) ERA 1996 regarding claims from the National Insurance Fund. The Recoupment Regulations were recorded as not applying. The total sum owed was £5,858.99.