Mr J Watson v Oxford Virtual Markets Limited — 2019

The claimant worked for Oxford Virtual Markets Limited as a Senior Developer from 14 December 2006 until he resigned with immediate effect on 20 October 2016. The tribunal found that from the end of November 2015 until termination there were significant delays and shortfalls in salary payments, and that no payments were made in respect of tax, employee national insurance, or pension contributions. It accepted the claimant's evidence that he had remained an employee and had not agreed to become self-employed or to treat the payments as loans.

On the unfair dismissal claim, the tribunal held that the repeated delays and shortfalls, together with the failure to make the required deductions and the broken promises about payment, amounted to a fundamental breach of the express term to pay salary monthly in arrears and of the implied term of trust and confidence. It found that the claimant resigned in response to those breaches and had not affirmed the contract. The tribunal also held that there was no potentially fair reason for dismissal and that, in any event, no fair procedure had been followed, so the dismissal was unfair.

The tribunal awarded a basic award of £4,311.00 and a compensatory award of £30,923.00 for financial loss and loss of statutory rights. It then applied a 25% uplift under s207A because the respondent had not complied with the ACAS Code in relation to the claimant's grievance, including failing to meet him, provide a formal response, or offer an appeal. That produced a compensatory award with uplift of £38,653.75 and an unfair dismissal award of £42,964.75.

The unlawful deduction from wages claim succeeded for two elements: salary shortfalls totalling £4,930.00 and £15,900.00 for tax and employee national insurance deductions that were not paid over to HMRC. The tribunal held that section 14 did not apply because the deductions were not made in accordance with the statutory PAYE obligation. The holiday pay claim also succeeded, with the tribunal finding that 20.5 days remained untaken at termination and awarding £3,546.50 at a daily rate of £173. The total award was £67,788.25.