In person For the v Mr R O’Neil, Director — 2021

At the hearing on 2 July 2021, the parties agreed that the Respondent would pay £1,270.00 for pension contribution arrears and £6,825.73 gross for an outstanding bonus payment. Those sums were recorded in the judgment by consent. The Claimant had said that he resigned on 28 August 2019 after repeated requests and discussions about the unpaid sums had not produced payment.

On the constructive dismissal claim, the Tribunal accepted the Claimant's case that the Respondent's continuing failure to pay the admitted sums amounted to a fundamental breach of express terms of the employment contract. The Tribunal found that the Respondent had made little or no attempt to resolve the dispute, that Mr O'Neil could not give a satisfactory explanation for non-payment, and that there was no valid reason why the Respondent, which had at least one other director, could not have tried to address the outstanding issues after the Claimant's final email of 12 July 2019.

The Tribunal held that the Claimant was entitled to resign and that his resignation constituted a constructive dismissal within section 95(1)(c) of the Employment Rights Act 1996. It therefore awarded a basic award of £2,100.00, calculated by reference to the statutory weekly pay cap of £525.00 and four years' service, and a compensatory award of £12,051.42.

For the compensatory award, the Tribunal used net pay of £2,306.57, accepted that the Claimant had been unable to secure alternative employment for six months, allowed a small amount of interim income, and added £500.00 for loss of statutory rights. The Tribunal recorded that the recoupment provisions did not apply.