Mr Kwabena Wiredu v Optim Management Ltd — 2023

Mr Kwabena Wiredu was employed by Optim Management Ltd from 1 August 2000 and was dismissed with effect from 10 March 2023. The respondent did not attend the preliminary hearing and did not file a response. The tribunal proceeded in its absence and accepted the claimant's evidence that on 3 March 2023 he was told his services would not be needed from 10 March 2023, so his employment was terminated on 3 March 2023 with only one week's notice.

On the unfair dismissal claim, the tribunal applied s.98 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and found that the respondent had not shown a potentially fair reason for dismissal. It accepted the claimant's evidence that he had not given notice in 2021, and regarded the suggestion that he had given 18 months' notice as improbable. The tribunal therefore found the dismissal unfair.

For remedy, the tribunal calculated a basic award using the claimant's 22-plus years' service, a 25 multiplier and the statutory weekly pay cap of £571, resulting in £14,275. The compensatory award was £3,546.14 net, made up of £500 for loss of statutory rights and £3,046.14 for six weeks' loss of earnings from 26 May 2023 to 29 June 2023. It did not award loss of earnings before 26 May 2023 because it treated that period as covered by notice pay, and it made no further loss of earnings award after 29 June 2023 because the claimant had started alternative work and had an earning capacity at least equal to what he had earned previously.

The tribunal also upheld the breach of contract claim for notice pay. It found that the claimant was entitled to a statutory minimum of 12 weeks' notice but had only been given one week, so it awarded damages for the remaining 11 weeks in the net sum of £5,584.59. The holiday pay claim succeeded in part: the tribunal accepted that bank holidays and earlier holiday periods in 2019 and 2020 had been paid, and that there was no contractual basis for rolling over holiday entitlement. It therefore awarded only the accrued but untaken entitlement for the 2022/23 holiday year, assessed as 13 days at £126.92 gross per day, totalling £1,649.96. The tribunal made no Acas uplift.