Ms M Kaminska v BII World Limited and 1 other — 2021

The tribunal first granted the respondent's Rule 37 application and struck out both whistleblowing claims. It held that the documents relied on, including the March emails and WhatsApp messages about the settlement figures and the 4 April email about the visa process, did not contain sufficient factual content to amount to qualifying disclosures under s.43B ERA 1996. It applied the approach in Kilraine v London Borough of Wandsworth and Ezsias v North Glamorgan NHS Trust and concluded that the claims had no reasonable prospect of success.

On the remaining claims, the tribunal found that Ms Kaminska was employed by BII World Limited as head of finance from 7 January 2019 to 25 July 2019, was suspended on 4 April 2019, and was dismissed after a disciplinary process. It accepted that several allegations were made out, including failure to follow reasonable instructions about the internal report, removal of company property, unauthorised absence, early payment of salary to herself, and failure to file the VAT return. It rejected some parts of the respondent's case, including the allegation about processing credit cards outside the office and part of the share-transfer allegation, but concluded that the proven matters together amounted to conduct justifying summary dismissal, so the wrongful dismissal claim failed.

The holiday pay claim succeeded on the basis of 12.5 days accrued but untaken leave, and the claimant was awarded £2,884.60 gross, less PAYE as appropriate, calculated at a daily rate of £230.77. The tribunal also found that the contract did not contain the particulars required by s.1 ERA 1996 and awarded two weeks' pay, £2,307 gross, under s.38 of the Employment Act 2002. It did not increase that award to four weeks because the omission was accidental and the contract had been based on a US template.