Mr OM Egbujor v Global Banking School Limited — 2020

In a preliminary hearing before Employment Judge Housego on 16 March 2020, the tribunal dealt only with the two claims left after an earlier judgment had struck out the rest of the case. Those remaining claims were for holiday pay and for wages under section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. The respondent applied for strike out, and the judge said that he would have done so on his own initiative in the circumstances.

The claimant accepted that he had been paid all holiday pay to which he was entitled, so the holiday pay claim had no remaining basis. As to wages, his case was that he had asked for a salary of £41,000 rather than the £30,000 set out in his contract, and that the managing director had said this would be reviewed after he had been in work for some time, but this never happened. He also said he was due a bonus and that he should have received one in February 2019 or at the end of the academic year in July 2019.

The tribunal reviewed the contract, which described the bonus as discretionary and annual, with payment dependent on the performance of the company as a whole, the business division and the claimant's individual performance. The judge noted that there were no parameters for calculating a bonus and no KPIs or other measures by which entitlement or amount could be assessed. The tribunal concluded that the claimant's real grievance was about how he felt he had been treated by his line manager, but that he had no arguable case for a contractual right to a discretionary bonus and no reasonable prospect of succeeding in either remaining claim.

Both remaining claims were therefore struck out under Rule 37. No monetary award was made.