Mrs A Berrington v The Book People Limited (in administration) — 2021

The respondent was in administration and had not presented a response. With the administrators' consent given on 27 April 2020, the Tribunal dealt with the matter on the file under Rule 21 without a hearing. The claimant had worked as Human Resources Manager from 5 September 2014 until 10 January 2020, when her role was made redundant. Her date of birth was 6 January 1969 and her gross monthly salary was £4,166.

The unfair dismissal claim succeeded under section 94 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. The Tribunal found that the claimant had completed 5 years' service and calculated a basic award of £3,937.50 under section 119 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. It also accepted that she was contractually entitled to 3 months' notice pay, that she had already received statutory notice pay and holiday pay from the Redundancy Payment Service, and that the balance of notice pay due was £11,030.70.

The age discrimination claim under section 39 of the Equality Act 2010 also succeeded. The claimant said her role was not genuinely redundant because it had been filled by a new and younger person, and the Tribunal awarded £12,365 for injury to feelings. For the unfair dismissal compensatory award, the Tribunal accepted that she had obtained lower-paid work from June 2020, used a net loss figure of £20,833, and grossed that up to £22,260.10 so that the award would be tax-neutral. The judgment records that the recoupment regulations did not apply to the contractual notice payment. The monetary awards therefore totalled £49,593.30.