Ms B Storrie v Black Pearl Pub Co Ltd — 2023

Ms Storrie worked for Black Pearl Pub Co Ltd from 10 March 2021 to 25 March 2022. She brought claims for unfair dismissal, deductions from wages, holiday pay, notice pay and an award for failure to provide written particulars. The tribunal first held that, although the claim form was initially presented on 18 August 2022 and then corrected after rejection for a respondent-name mismatch, it was not reasonably practicable to present the corrected claim before the limitation period expired; the corrected presentation on 5 September 2022 was within a further reasonable period, so the tribunal had jurisdiction under s111 ERA 1996.

On unfair dismissal, the tribunal found that the claimant had been asserting a statutory right when she challenged the tax deductions taken from her pay. It accepted her evidence that she raised the issue with the respondent and with HMRC, and it accepted the Facebook posts she produced as consistent with a genuine attempt to resolve the tax position. The tribunal rejected the respondent’s late allegation that she had been dismissed for abusive social media conduct, noting that the posts produced did not contain foul language or abuse. It therefore held that the dismissal on 25 March 2022 was automatically unfair under s104 ERA 1996 because the reason, or principal reason, for dismissal was the claimant’s assertion that the deductions were unauthorised.

For remedy on the unfair dismissal claim, the tribunal found that the claimant was under 22 and had one year’s continuous service, so the basic award was one half week’s pay. Using an average weekly pay figure of £173.29, it awarded a basic award of £86.64. It made no compensatory award because the claimant had started other employment from 3 April 2022 and the tribunal found she had been paid to that date, so there was no financial loss flowing from the dismissal. The tribunal also noted that no ACAS uplift could be applied because there was no compensatory award.

The tribunal upheld the wages claim under s13 ERA 1996. It found that the claimant’s gross earnings were below the personal allowance and that deductions shown on the P60, together with the deduction reflected on the P45, had not been paid over to HMRC. It therefore awarded £1,075.80 as an unauthorised deduction from wages. It also upheld the holiday pay claim, finding that holiday had accrued but remained untaken at termination and applying the Working Time Regulations 1998 and the cited case law on carry-over and termination payments to arrive at £272.14. Finally, because the claimant had not been given written initial employment particulars, the tribunal made the minimum award under s38 Employment Act 2002 of two weeks’ pay, amounting to £346.58.