Ms E Bal v Camelot Real Estate Management Limited (in Creditors Voluntary Liquidation) — 2020

The respondent failed to attend the hearing and failed to present an ET3. Employment Judge John Crosfill heard evidence from Ms Bal at a remote telephone hearing and determined the claims on the papers from the tribunal file. The tribunal found her claims for unlawful deduction of wages and breach of contract in relation to the period 1 October 2019 to 13 December 2019 to be well founded.

On the wages claim, the tribunal declared an underpayment of £5,068.49. It then dealt with the breach of contract claim separately under the Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (England and Wales) Order 1994, awarding £5,068.49 for salary and £405.47 for bonus for the same period when the respondent neither paid her nor permitted her to work. A 25% uplift was added because the respondent had failed to permit the claimant to advance a grievance about those matters, producing a total of £6,442.45 for that element.

The unfair dismissal claim succeeded. The tribunal held that the reason for dismissal was redundancy within section 139 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. It said the basic award was extinguished by the statutory redundancy payment, and it awarded a compensatory award of £1,495.52 on the basis that, had there been warning of redundancy, the claimant would have found replacement work earlier. The tribunal also awarded a statutory redundancy payment of £961.53 because she had two years' continuous service and was between the ages of 22 and 41.

The claim for accrued but untaken holiday was dismissed. The tribunal recorded that the total sum payable was £8,899.50, subject to tax and national insurance deductions required by law, and it also stated that the Employment Protection (Recoupment of Jobseeker's Allowance and Income Support) Regulations 1996 did not apply to the awards.