David Wilson v Kingdom Bakeries Limited (In creditors’ voluntary liquidation) — 2022

David Wilson was employed by Kingdom Bakeries Limited as technical manager from 18 June 2016 until 14 February 2022. The respondent entered creditors' voluntary liquidation on 14 February 2022. No ET3 was lodged and the respondent did not attend or represent itself at the final hearing. The tribunal accepted the claimant's evidence as credible and reliable.

On the notice pay claim, the tribunal held that the respondent had breached the contract by failing to give notice of termination. However, it awarded no damages because the claimant had mitigated his loss in full by obtaining alternative employment with a higher net salary than he had received from the respondent. On the redundancy claim, the liquidators' letter assumed that the claimant was entitled to a redundancy payment, and the statutory presumption under section 163 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 was not contradicted. Using gross weekly pay of £615.38, five years' service and age 44 at 14 February 2022, the tribunal awarded £3,536.00.

On wages, the tribunal found that the claimant had received no pay from August 2021 to 14 February 2022 and held that the arrears were unlawful deductions from wages. It awarded £10,564.05. On holiday pay, the tribunal accepted that the claimant had taken no paid leave in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 leave years and awarded £4,654.24 in lieu of accrued untaken leave, calculated as £2,482.26 for the full 5.6 weeks due for 2020/21 and £2,171.98 for the proportion due to 14 February 2022. The total awarded was £18,754.29.