Claimant v Gyurov v Dial A Carer Group Ltd — 2021

Mr V Gyurov was employed by Dial A Carer Group Limited as a community manager from 1 April 2018 until 27 June 2019. The respondent went into voluntary liquidation during the proceedings and took no part in preparing the case or attending the hearing. Employment Judge M Warren therefore decided the matter on the papers, referring to Serco Ltd v Wells [2016] ICR 768, on the material available from the claimant.

The tribunal found that Mr Gyurov made a protected disclosure to the Care Quality Commission on 21 June 2019 about health and safety concerns and clients being left without care. It accepted that he was removed from on-call duties on 25 June 2019 and held, under section 48(2) ERA 1996, that this detriment was caused by the protected disclosure because the respondent produced no evidence of another reason. The unfair dismissal claim also succeeded: applying the approach in Smith v Hayle Town Council and Kuzel v Roche Products Ltd, the judge inferred from the very close timing between the disclosure and the dismissal, together with the absence of any investigation or fair procedure, that the reason for dismissal was the protected disclosure.

The notice pay claim for one week and the holiday pay claim for 18 days also succeeded on the claimant’s unopposed evidence. Unpleaded matters said to concern unpaid travel time, unpaid wages, and a deduction for training costs were not considered. For remedy, the tribunal made no award for the detriment claim because no injury to feelings or financial loss was claimed for that head. It awarded £384.61 for notice pay and £1,384.59 for holiday pay, accepted the basic award calculation at £488.54, and increased it by 25% under the ACAS Code and s.207A TULRCA 1992 to £610.67. No compensatory award was made because there was no evidence of financial loss or benefits, and the total payable was £2,379.87 without deduction.