In person For the Second and Third v Mr Munro, Peninsula Consultant — 2022

The tribunal first resolved the employment identity issue and held that the claimant's correct employer was Protea Care Homes (Kent) Limited, relying on the P45 and disciplinary correspondence. It treated the pleaded case as including an ordinary unfair dismissal claim under the Employment Rights Act 1996, together with claims for race discrimination, unlawful deduction of wages and holiday pay.

On unfair dismissal, the tribunal accepted that conduct was the reason advanced for dismissal, but found that the respondents did not carry out a reasonable investigation and did not follow their own disciplinary policy. The dismissal decision was based on unsigned and undated employee statements, no transcript or notes of the hearing were before the tribunal, and the decision-makers did not give evidence. The tribunal held that the claimant had not been shown a fair basis for the allegations, rejected any reduction for contributory fault or Polkey, and found the dismissal unfair under s.98(4) ERA 1996.

The race discrimination claim failed. The tribunal accepted that the claimant was black African, but found that the manner in which the dismissal was handled, although inept, was not because of race, colour or national origin. It held that a hypothetical white comparator would have been treated in the same way. The tribunal also noted the claimant's separate complaint about the appointment of Jennifer to Team Leader, but did not treat that as a proved direct race discrimination claim.

The unlawful deduction of wages claim and the holiday pay claim were both dismissed for lack of evidential support. The tribunal was not satisfied that the claimant had shown an unlawful reduction in contractual hours, noting that she had asked to return to bank hours around August 2018, and it found that she could not explain the basis of the holiday pay claim or what remained outstanding.

Remedy was limited to the unfair dismissal claim. The tribunal found 26 weeks of loss from 9 November 2018 to 13 May 2019 at a net weekly rate of £250.46, giving a compensatory figure of £6,511.96. It also awarded a basic award of £579.64 and £500 for loss of statutory rights, then applied a 20% uplift for failure to follow the ACAS Code, producing a total award of £9,111.12.