Claimant v On Air Dining Ltd — 2020

At remedy, the tribunal awarded compensation for constructive unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal, breach of contract, and detriments for protected public interest disclosures. The claimant did not seek reinstatement or re-engagement. He found alternative employment on 16 April 2018, so the tribunal ended loss at that date and accepted that he had mitigated his loss by making more than 90 job applications, contacting recruiters, and attending interviews.

For constructive unfair dismissal, the tribunal accepted that the claimant lost 32 weeks' salary and associated benefits, including car, insurance, road fund, family dental insurance, and 1% pension contributions. It rejected the respondent's argument that the car benefit should be excluded because the claimant was not using the vehicle at dismissal. The basic award was £1,467 and the compensatory award was £38,964, including £300 for loss of statutory rights, bringing the unfair dismissal compensation to £40,431.

The tribunal applied a 25% uplift under section 207A because the respondent had failed to investigate the fraud allegations promptly, had not given the claimant the allegations in time, and had handled the disciplinary process in a way it found unreasonable. The wrongful dismissal complaint also succeeded, but no separate sum was paid because the loss was already included in the unfair dismissal calculation.

On breach of contract, the tribunal awarded £6,324 for the balance between contractual pay and SSP from 5 July 2017 to 5 September 2017 and £1,459 for paternity leave pay, totalling £7,783. For the whistleblowing detriment claims, it found detriments including the claimant's suspension, the 10 August and 17 August allegations, the 4 September holiday allegation, withholding holiday pay, and later post-dismissal reporting to HMRC and the police.

For those whistleblowing claims, the tribunal awarded £24,000 for injury to feelings and aggravated damages and £6,000 for psychiatric injury. It found that the detriments materially contributed to the claimant's psychiatric injury, added a 10% Simmons v Castle uplift, deducted £1,153.85 already paid, and applied 8% interest under the Employment Tribunals (Interest on Awards in Discrimination Cases) Regulations 1996, producing £34,393.84. The tribunal declined to impose a section 12A penalty despite finding aggravating features, and the net total ordered was £82,607.84, subject to any gross-up submissions if the parties could not agree.