Mr D Shaw v Represented by Mr M Allison Counsel MK Professional Services Limited and 1 other — 2023

The tribunal held that there had been a TUPE transfer from RISM to MK Professional Services Limited around November 2022, so MKPS was the claimant's employer at the effective date of termination on 28 February 2023. It also held that the early conciliation certificate defect for MKPS, which used an incorrect address, was not a substantive defect and that it was in the interests of justice to allow the claims to proceed. On that basis the claimant had more than 30 years' continuous service, in fact around 34 years.

On unfair dismissal, the respondent relied on a substantial other reason said to be an irretrievable breakdown in the working relationship after the claimant did not attend the 24 February 2023 meeting and said he did not wish further meetings to be held on the Estate. The tribunal found that the claimant had an unblemished record, had accepted redundancy, had not been warned that his conduct put the relationship in jeopardy, and had not refused all meetings. It found that the stated relationship-breakdown reason was a fiction, used to avoid paying a redundancy payment, and held that the respondent had not shown a potentially fair reason for dismissal. It also found that, even if there had been a potentially fair reason, no reasonable employer could have treated what occurred as sufficient grounds to dismiss.

On wrongful dismissal, the tribunal held that the claimant had not been paid the correct notice entitlement. The payment in lieu of notice covered salary only, did not compensate for holiday that would have accrued during the 12-week notice period, and did not include contractual benefits. It also found that the payment had been reduced on a misunderstanding of the claimant's contract, because his pay was not dependent on the number of days worked in a given week. The judgment directed that a one-day remedy hearing would be listed, so no monetary award was fixed in this decision.