Mr S Kerr v Forth Roofing Services Lanark — 2020

Mr S Kerr worked as a roofer for Forth Roofing Services Lanark from around June 2005. On 14 August 2019 he was told that the company would be ceasing trading, and he continued working until 19 August 2019 to complete existing jobs. The tribunal heard only from the claimant, found him to be a candid and credible witness, and accepted his evidence in full.

The redundancy pay claim was found to be in time. The tribunal treated 19 August 2019 as the effective date of termination and held that the six-month period under the Employment Rights Act 1996 expired on 18 February 2020, so the claim presented on 6 January 2020 was within time. Applying the statutory redundancy formula, the tribunal found that the claimant was 33 at dismissal, had completed 14 full years of service, and was paid £415.20 gross per week. It awarded 12.5 weeks' pay, totalling £5,190.

The holiday pay claim was out of time on its face because the three-month limit expired on 18 November 2019. Applying the reasonable practicability test under regulation 30(2) of the Working Time Regulations 1998, the tribunal accepted that the claimant did not know about the time limit until early December 2019, had relied on what he had been told by his employer about making a claim, and then acted promptly by contacting ACAS on 23 December 2019 and lodging the tribunal claim on 6 January 2020. It therefore allowed the claim to proceed late.

On quantification of holiday pay, the tribunal found that the claimant was entitled to 28 days' holiday per year, had taken 13 days by 19 August 2019, and was entitled to payment for 4.8 untaken days for the period from 1 January 2019 to 19 August 2019. Using a daily rate of £83.04, it awarded £398.53 for holiday pay. The combined awards totalled £5,588.53.