(Sitting Alone) Miss K Adair v (1) Concept Barbers Ltd — 2017

Miss Karen Adair was employed by Concept Barbers Ltd from 10 February 2006 as a gentleman's hairdresser. The tribunal accepted her evidence that part of her Saturday work had been paid in cash at Mr Conway's insistence, but held that she was a reluctant participant in that arrangement and that denying her access to her statutory and contractual claims would be disproportionate under Patel v Mirza. On that basis the tribunal held that it had jurisdiction, and it also found that she remained employed by the First Respondent throughout; there was no evidence that her employment had transferred to Conway Men’s Hairdressing Limited.

The tribunal found that the claimant's increased hours, first to three days a week and later to five days a week, were intended to be permanent or indefinite. It held that Mr Conway's unilateral reduction of her hours on 18 November 2016 from 32/40 hours per week to 16 hours per week, without her agreement and with a consequential reduction in pay, was a plain breach of contract and a repudiatory breach. The claimant protested, raised a grievance, and through solicitors sought reinstatement of her previous hours or negotiated redundancy terms. The tribunal found that she did not affirm the contract and that her resignation on 1 February 2017 was in response to the respondent's conduct, so she was constructively dismissed.

Because the First Respondent did not show a fair reason for dismissal, the tribunal held that the constructive dismissal was unfair. It awarded a basic award of £2,560, calculated on 10 years' service at a weekly pay rate of £256, and a compensatory award of £300 for the loss of accrued statutory employment rights. It also awarded £1,254 in breach of contract damages for lost net earnings over 11 weeks and £160 gross for accrued holiday pay. The total award was £4,274, and the tribunal made no order in respect of tribunal fees.