David Langwallner, Counsel For the v Louise Carr, Solicitor — 2019

The claimant was employed as a PHP Developer from 18 April 2012 and resigned on 24 February 2018 with effect from 22 March 2018. He alleged that workload, holiday contact, lack of pay rises, and the refusal to meet visa-fee requests amounted to a breach of the implied term of mutual trust and confidence and constructive dismissal. The tribunal found the timesheets broadly reliable, accepted that he did extra work on the Premier League project and was enthusiastic, but rejected that he was forced to do the work of more than one person or to work unreasonably long hours as alleged. It also found that contact during his holiday in October 2017 was limited to what was necessary to obtain passcodes, that he had no contractual entitlement to a pay rise, and that he had no entitlement to reimbursement of visa application fees.

Applying Western Excavating and Malik, the tribunal held that the matters relied on did not amount to a repudiatory breach of contract and did not establish a constructive dismissal. It found that the allegation about being told he could not attend an Accenture project event was not evidence of sidelining, because he was not in a client-facing role and his presence was not needed. The tribunal therefore found that the claimant had not been dismissed for the purposes of his unfair dismissal complaint.

On race discrimination and harassment, the claimant alleged that at a meeting on 10 November 2017 Mr Varsani said, 'we need a white face, to face customers', and that the arrangements for his departure on 22 March 2018 were less favourable than the treatment of white employees. The tribunal found, on the balance of probabilities, that Mr Varsani said 'right face' rather than 'white face' and that the remark was made in the context of explaining why CM had the skills and experience for the commercial director role. It also found no less favourable treatment in the exit arrangements and no basis for concluding that any difference in treatment was because of race. The race discrimination and race-related harassment claims were dismissed.

The unlawful deduction from wages claim concerned the final payment of £166 compared with the claimant's usual salary of £2,729. The tribunal found there was no written agreement allowing annual leave to be carried from 2017 to 2018, that the claimant had accrued five days' leave by 22 March 2018, and that the deductions from his final pay reflected unpaid leave taken beyond that entitlement. That claim was dismissed and no remedy was awarded.