Miss Lorraine Comrie v F Pubs Limited — 2021

Miss Lorraine Comrie worked for F5 Pubs Limited at the Kirkhouse Bar and Kitchen from 1 April 2018 to 14 July 2020 as bar staff, working 18 hours per week at £8.21 per hour. On 11 July 2020, when the premises reopened after lockdown, she made a tilling error on a sale to customer A and separately put £4 from customer B into the tip jar after customer B took two face masks. On 13 and 14 July, the bar manager told her the respondent believed CCTV showed she had charged customer A for two pints but recorded one, and then dismissed her on 14 July 2020 for alleged theft of £4.

The tribunal accepted the claimant as a credible and reliable witness. Because the respondent did not attend, lodge a response or produce evidence, the tribunal found there had been no reasonable investigation, no disclosure of the alleged CCTV, no disciplinary hearing, no dismissal letter and no appeal process. Applying BHS v Burchell, s.98(4) ERA 1996 and the range of reasonable responses in Iceland Frozen Foods Ltd v Jones, it held the respondent did not have a genuine belief on reasonable grounds and that the dismissal was substantively and procedurally unfair.

The unfair dismissal claim was upheld and the tribunal awarded a basic award of £443.34. It also awarded £1,921.14 for loss of earnings, £250 for loss of statutory rights and a 25% uplift of £480.29 because the respondent unreasonably failed to follow the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures under section 207A of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. The holiday pay claim was also upheld: the tribunal found the claimant had never been given an effective opportunity to take paid holidays because she had to work an alternative day when taking leave, and awarded £246.45 for 2020/2021, £591.12 for 2019/2020 and £591.12 for 2018/2019, totalling £1,428.69. The judgment states a total award of £4,523.36, although the itemised figures otherwise sum to £4,523.46.