Mr F Mills v Stella Brodie t/a Grouchos — 2020

Mr F Mills worked for Grouchos from 1 May 1995 as manager. The tribunal accepted that after the death of Mr Brodie the respondent, his widow, took over the business and that the claimant and three colleagues transferred to her employment under TUPE on 1 August 2020. The store had closed on 21 March 2020 when the Covid lockdown began, the respondent continued to pay wages while trade was suspended, and on 14 June 2020 she told a colleague that the claimant and the others' employment was ending and that no notice or redundancy payments would be made. The claimant had weekly gross pay of £450, was 62 at termination, and had taken no holiday in the relevant holiday year.

On the unopposed evidence, the tribunal held that the claimant had been dismissed by reason of redundancy because the respondent had ceased to operate from the premises and the requirement for employees to do the work had ceased. It applied the statutory redundancy provisions and the presumption in s.163(2) ERA 1996, and awarded a statutory redundancy payment of £13,500 based on 25 years' service, capped at 20 years for calculation purposes, with 20 years counted at 1.5 weeks' pay per year because the claimant was over 41 for those years.

The tribunal also held that the respondent breached the claimant's contract by failing to provide the 12 weeks' notice incorporated by s.86(4) ERA 1996. The claimant had normal working hours, made reasonable efforts to mitigate his loss, and had no replacement income during the notice period, so damages were assessed at £5,400. A further award of £2,520 gross was made for accrued untaken holiday outstanding at termination, calculated as 5.6 weeks' leave at £450 per week and enforced as an unauthorised deduction from wages under s.13 ERA 1996 and Regulation 14 of the Working Time Regulations 1998. The sums awarded were expressed gross of tax and national insurance, and the total award was £21,420.