Mr J West v Alith Vore Consulting Limited — 2019

Mr West had worked for True North Human Capital Ltd from 2010 and transferred to Alith Vore Consulting Limited on 7 December 2018 under TUPE. The tribunal found that his earlier company, The Search House, was dormant during his employment with the respondent and was not trading or competing. By December 2018 he was chasing unpaid salary, pension contributions and evidence of life assurance cover, and by spring 2019 the relationship had deteriorated over the continuing non-payment and criticism of his performance.

The tribunal found that he resigned on 29 May 2019 because salary had not been paid and he did not accept that payment would resume on a monthly basis. It held that this was a constructive unfair dismissal and a breach of the implied term of trust and confidence. The tribunal rejected the respondent's reliance on the claimant's dormant company, alleged misuse of LinkedIn information, post-resignation comments, and the removal of laptop user profiles as reasons to reduce compensation.

On remedy, the tribunal awarded unpaid net salary for April and May 2019 of £8,776.27, notice pay of £12,654.48 for 12 weeks, and holiday pay of £1,051.68 for seven untaken days. It also awarded £437.27 for the May 2019 pension contribution, £366.68 for expenses, £557.28 for replacement life assurance, and £500 for loss of statutory rights; it found no loss for medical insurance or income protection and made no ACAS uplift.

For the unfair dismissal award, the tribunal applied the compensatory award approach under section 123 ERA 1996, considered contributory fault and Polkey, but found no contributory fault from the dormant Search House, the LinkedIn information or the post-resignation comments. It accepted that performance had declined and assessed a 10% chance of dismissal after three months if a performance programme had been imposed, so it awarded three months in full and three months at 90%. The basic award was £4,275 and the compensatory award was £26,047.13; the total award was grossed up to £57,098.95 and recoupment did not apply.