Mr Newall (In Person) For the v Respondent — 2022

Mr S Newall, a cabin crew employee and Unite representative, succeeded in his claim for payment for union duties under s.169 TULRCA. The tribunal found that the parties agreed on 8 August 2019 that going forward he and others would be paid basic pay and EHR for trade union duties, but that backpay remained unresolved. Applying the claimant's schedule, it limited the award to the period from 8 August 2019 to 1 October 2019 and calculated 28 days at £26.56, producing £743.68.

The dismissal claim also succeeded. The tribunal found that the claimant sent the 10 September 2019 email to the CCAG group of Unite representatives as part of his trade union responsibilities, not as an individual employee, and that the VRA's confidentiality clause covered Unite representatives. It accepted that there was no malicious intent or bad faith and held that the dismissal was automatically unfair under s.152(1)(b) TULRCA. In the alternative, it held that although the respondent had a genuine belief in misconduct, it lacked reasonable grounds because it failed to consider the VRA and the claimant's union authority, and the dismissal was not within the band of reasonable responses.

On remedy for unfair dismissal, the tribunal reduced both the basic award and the compensatory award by 20% for contributory conduct because the claimant could have clarified who he intended to send the email to or sought explicit permission if uncertain. It made no Polkey deduction and no ACAS uplift. The tribunal calculated a basic award of £1,723.32 and a compensatory award of £6,869.29, plus £789.22 pension loss, £50 job search expenses and £500 loss of statutory rights, before applying the 20% deduction. The unfair dismissal award was £7,945.47.

The holiday pay claim succeeded too. The tribunal accepted that the claimant had 5.61 days of holiday outstanding on termination on 18 November 2019. It found that the first 28 days of holiday had to be paid at the full rate, including EHR, and rejected the respondent's argument that the calculation could not be worked out. The award for holiday pay was £149.55.