Mr D Barrett v Wembley Tyres Ltd — 2024

The respondent did not file a response, and the tribunal dealt with the case on the papers after noting that the respondent had not objected. ACAS conciliation took place from 10 to 25 November 2022, and the claim was presented on 23 December 2022. The tribunal found that the claimant had worked for the respondent for more than two years, although the exact start date was not specified consistently in the papers.

On around 16 August 2022 the claimant was told that the company was ceasing trading and that he would be entitled to a redundancy payment. He was dismissed with immediate effect on 16 August 2022 and was not given notice. The tribunal found that, because of his length of service, he was entitled to at least 12 weeks' notice and had received none. It inferred that he was unemployed for around two weeks before starting a new job at the beginning of September 2022, and that his later earnings exceeded those he had received from the respondent.

The tribunal held that the unfair dismissal claim was well-founded, but it made no compensation award on that claim because the claimant's loss of earnings was covered by the breach of contract award. It also made no basic award because the claimant was entitled to a redundancy payment. The tribunal therefore awarded £418.16 for notice pay and £265.96 for unpaid holiday entitlement, and recorded that the redundancy payment itself was not quantified in the judgment text.