Ms M Duggan v RCH Care Homes Limited — 2020

Ms Duggan brought two claims arising from her employment with RCH Care Homes Limited: unpaid notice pay and unpaid commission. On the notice-pay issue, the parties agreed that the contractual notice period was one week during probation and three months afterwards. The Tribunal found that the email of 27 March 2020 postponed the probation review meeting and had the effect of extending probation until that meeting took place and probation was confirmed as passed. On that basis, Ms Duggan was still in her probationary period when dismissed on 23 April 2020, so she was entitled only to one week’s notice. Because that notice had already been paid, the claim for unpaid notice pay was dismissed.

On commission, the Tribunal held that the contractual paperwork sent on 23 September 2019 governed the commission terms. It found there was commission of £300 for each permanent private resident placed and £50 for each local authority resident placed. The Tribunal rejected any contractual entitlement to commission for respite care, found no commission payable where funding came from the NHS, and accepted the respondent’s evidence that any £50 local-authority commissions already due had been paid.

The only unpaid amount the Tribunal found due was commission of £300 for six residents, totalling £1,800 gross. That sum was awarded to Ms Duggan. The Tribunal noted that the dismissal may have seemed unfair to her, but it was not deciding an unfair dismissal claim; the only successful claim before it was the unlawful deduction of wages claim for unpaid commission.