Mr GT MacLeod v MacAulay Trading Limited — 2019

Mr GT MacLeod worked as a bar assistant at the Lochboisdale Hotel from 8 May 2016. The tribunal accepted that the respondent's business was seasonal and that concerns had arisen about the claimant's alcohol use and reliability. The central issue was the meeting on 18 September 2018. The tribunal found, on balance, that the claimant said he intended to leave South Uist and would work at the hotel until the end of September. Applying the objective question of how that statement would be understood, the tribunal held that it was an intimation of resignation with notice, so there was no dismissal under s.95 ERA 1996 and the unfair dismissal claim was dismissed.

Because the tribunal found that the claimant resigned with notice, the breach of contract claim for notice pay was also dismissed. The tribunal noted that the claimant's contract incorporated the Employee Handbook, including the respondent's stated right to deduct wages in certain circumstances, and it accepted that he had signed the contract and was advised of that term. The judgment also records that the tribunal would only have considered Polkey and contributory conduct if unfair dismissal had succeeded, but no compensation exercise arose because the dismissal claim failed.

The claim for unauthorised deduction from wages was well founded. The respondent had deducted £111.50 from the claimant's final wage slip in respect of an unpaid bill linked to the till system, but the invoice itself was not produced and there was insufficient evidence as to when the bill was left unpaid, who else was working, or that the loss was caused by the claimant's fault or negligence. The judgment notes that a separate remedy hearing was unlikely to be required on that claim because the amount of the deduction was clear, but the text provided does not set out a final monetary award. The holiday pay issue was left for later specification and was not determined in this judgment.