Mr T Jeffrey v Avocet Agritech Ltd — 2021

Mr T Jeffrey brought claims for notice pay, unpaid holiday pay, unpaid wages, expenses, and unfair dismissal. The hearing took place by CVP; the respondent did not attend, and the tribunal proceeded in its absence under Rule 47. When the claimant mentioned a possible whistleblowing case at the outset, the tribunal explained that no such claim was on the ET1 and the claimant chose not to seek an adjournment or amendment, so the case proceeded only as an ordinary unfair dismissal claim.

The tribunal held that Avocet Agritech Ltd breached the claimant's contract by failing to give the statutory minimum notice period of three weeks incorporated by section 86(4) ERA 1996, and ordered £1,604.69 net damages. It also found unauthorised deductions from wages in respect of ten days' accrued untaken holiday outstanding at termination and in respect of unpaid wages from 1 March to 17 April 2020, ordering £1,917.81 and £7,195.83 respectively. The awards at items 2 and 3 were expressed gross of tax and national insurance.

The breach of contract claim for £1,511.31 expenses was dismissed as not well founded. The tribunal upheld the unfair dismissal complaint but deferred remedy to a separate hearing. For remedy purposes it found that the claimant had no entitlement to a basic award under s.122(4) ERA 1996, that the dismissal was neither caused nor contributed to by any action of the claimant for s.123(6), and that no Polkey reduction was to be applied because it had not been proved that a fair dismissal, or lawful ending within any particular timescale, would have occurred.