Mrs J Lamont v Owl Cleaning Services Limited — 2024

The claimant became an employee of the respondent on 2 May 2023 via a TUPE transfer and was dismissed on 12 May 2023. The respondent maintained that it dismissed her for some other substantial reason, namely a genuine belief that she could not prove her identity and right to work. The tribunal found the dismissal to be unfair, and that complaint was well-founded. The complaints of unauthorised deductions from wages, breach of contract for notice pay, and holiday pay were also well-founded. The claim for a redundancy payment was withdrawn at the start of proceedings and dismissed upon withdrawal.

On remedy, the tribunal awarded a basic award of £781.50 and, after reconsideration to correct two errors in the oral judgment (failure to apply the statutory 52-week cap on the compensatory award and failure to deduct the notice pay award to avoid double recovery), a compensatory award of £6,733, producing a total monetary award for unfair dismissal of £7,514.50. The compensatory award included immediate loss of £6,343.18 (48.7 weeks x £130.25), £300 for loss of statutory rights, and future loss of £2,852.48 (21.9 weeks x £130.25), totalling £9,495.66 before deduction of notice pay and application of the statutory cap. The Recoupment Regulations 1996 applied; the prescribed element was £4,758.65 for the period 12/5/23 to 15/5/24.

In addition to the unfair dismissal award, the tribunal ordered payment of £234.45 in unauthorised wage deductions, £521 in notice pay damages, and £263.78 in holiday pay damages. The judgment was a reconsideration on the papers, conducted with no objection from either party, and the judge apologised for the initial errors in the oral remedy judgment.