Mr Craig Houston v RSR Porscha UK Ltd — 2020

The tribunal found that the effective date of termination was 26 May 2020, when the claimant was orally told he was being made redundant, rather than 31 March 2020 or 29 May 2020. It accepted the claimant's evidence that his employment had transferred under TUPE through Porsche Dynamics Ltd, Dynamic Automobiles Ltd, RSR Porscha Ltd, and then to RSR Porscha UK Ltd, and held that he had continuous employment from 5 January 2015 to 26 May 2020. On that basis, the tribunal found that he had the requisite 2 years' service and that it had jurisdiction to hear the unfair dismissal claim.

On unfair dismissal, the tribunal accepted the Respondent's case that the reason for dismissal was redundancy arising from the COVID-19 impact on the business, and it accepted that the Claimant could not be placed on the CJRS because he had not been put on PAYE in time, which it attributed to the Respondent or its accountant. However, it found the dismissal procedure unfair because there had been no warning of redundancy, no consultation, no evidence of a fair selection pool, and no consideration of alternative employment. It therefore upheld the unfair dismissal complaint. The tribunal made no basic award, and under Polkey it considered that any fair process would have taken at least 4 weeks, by which time the claimant had found alternative employment. The compensatory award was limited to £400 for loss of statutory protection and £200 for loss of the right to long notice, making £600 net, with no reduction for contributory fault and no ACAS adjustment.

On the remaining monetary claims, the tribunal found that the claimant had been dismissed without notice and awarded £2,690 gross as damages for wrongful dismissal / breach of contract, based on 5 weeks' notice at the capped weekly rate of £538 gross. It also awarded £2,690 gross as redundancy pay on the same 5-week basis. For wages, the tribunal found that no payment had been made after 31 March 2020 although the employment continued to 26 May 2020, and awarded £5,516.13 gross for unpaid April wages and the proportion of May wages to the EDT. For holiday pay, it found that the claimant had taken only 1 day of leave in the 2020 leave year, had accrued approximately 2.057 weeks by the EDT, and had not been paid for that accrued holiday, so it awarded £1,424.18 gross. The total sums payable were £600 net plus £12,320.31 gross.