Ms L Eaton (family friend) For the v Mr Stephen Meeks (Group Chairman) — 2020

Mr Paul Lee worked for Smarter Data Management Limited from 20 March 2017 as an electrician’s mate. The tribunal found that the working arrangement with another electrician, Alex Minns, was becoming untenable by the end of 2018, and that the claimant had been told he needed to obtain a full driving licence so that he could travel to work. The claimant obtained a provisional licence in January 2019 and the tribunal accepted that he was making efforts to obtain a licence.

The tribunal found that in March 2019 the respondent decided to terminate the claimant’s employment because there was no local work for him and he had not yet obtained a full driving licence. It held that the dismissal was procedurally unfair because there had been no consultation or warning before dismissal. The claimant was unemployed for nine weeks and then obtained alternative work on 24 June 2019 on comparable pay.

In assessing compensation, the tribunal concluded that if a fair procedure had been followed there was a 50% chance that the claimant would still have lost his job, either by reason of redundancy or because he did not yet have a full driving licence. It therefore awarded compensation for 4.5 weeks of net pay during the period of unemployment, plus a basic award and a separate sum for loss of statutory rights. The tribunal recorded that the claimant did not seek reinstatement or re-engagement.

The final award was £3,781.28, made up of a basic award of £1,050, a compensatory award of £2,231.28, and £500 for loss of statutory rights. The tribunal also recorded that the claimant was not in receipt of state benefits between 19 April and 24 June 2019, so the recoupment provisions did not apply.