Mrs J Bonfield v Respondent — 2020

Mrs J Bonfield brought claims including unfair dismissal, redundancy payment, notice pay, holiday pay and other payments. The respondent did not enter an appearance or file a response. The tribunal held that the claim was presented in time after ACAS early conciliation, despite the claimant's first online submission wrongly naming the manager rather than the respondent, and therefore the tribunal had jurisdiction to hear the complaints.

On unfair dismissal, the claimant gave evidence about the suspension and disciplinary process that led to dismissal and said some statements had been manufactured or altered. The tribunal recorded the statutory test under sections 94 and 98 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and concluded that, because the respondent provided no response or evidence, it had not shown the reason or principal reason for dismissal. The tribunal therefore found the dismissal unfair.

The tribunal awarded a basic award of £4,855.20 using a multiplier of 10.5 and a weekly pay figure of £462.40. It awarded a compensatory award of £18,676.32, made up of £18,376.32 for loss of earnings and £300 for loss of statutory industrial rights, and said the recoupment provisions applied. It also found the claimant was entitled to holiday pay for three days in the 2019 holiday year and 15 carried-over days from 2018. The reasons and final award section do not fully reconcile all of the figures, but the monetary award is stated as £23,731.52 with a prescribed element of £18,376.32 and an excess over that element of £5,385.20.