Mr L Scott v Stella Brodie t/a Grouchos — 2020

Mr L Scott had worked for Alistair Brodie trading as Grouchos from 25 August 2010 as a general shop assistant. After Mr Brodie died on 31 July 2020, the respondent, his widow, took over the business. The tribunal found that the claimant and his three colleagues transferred to the respondent under TUPE on 1 August 2020. The shop had already closed on 21 March 2020 because of the Covid lockdown, but the respondent continued to pay the claimant's weekly wage of £320 until 12 June 2020. On 14 June 2020 the respondent told Ms Rogers that she was terminating the employment of the claimant and his colleagues and did not intend to pay notice or redundancy sums. The respondent did not attend or lead evidence, and the tribunal accepted the evidence of the claimant and his former colleagues as credible.

Applying ss.135, 139 and 163(2) ERA 1996, the tribunal held that the claimant was dismissed by reason of redundancy because the respondent had ceased to operate from the premises where he had worked and the requirements of the business for employees to carry out that work had ceased. It therefore awarded a statutory redundancy payment of £1,920, calculated by reference to nine complete years' service, a weekly pay figure of £320, and the age-related multipliers set out in the judgment.

The tribunal also held that the respondent breached the claimant's contract by failing to give any statutory minimum notice under s.86(4) ERA 1996. It accepted that he had normal working hours and had made reasonable efforts to mitigate his loss, but received no replacement income during the nine-week notice period, so it awarded damages of £2,880. It further found that as at 14 June 2020 the claimant had used none of his annual leave entitlement and was owed 5.6 weeks' holiday on termination, awarding £1,792 gross in respect of accrued untaken holiday under reg. 14 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 and s.13 ERA 1996. The total award was £6,592 gross.