Claimant v Regis UK Ltd (in administration) — 2020

Ms D Chambers brought unfair dismissal and disability discrimination claims against Regis UK Limited, which was in administration and did not lodge a response or attend the hearing. The tribunal accepted her evidence and found that she resigned because of a repudiatory breach of the implied term of trust and confidence. No potentially fair reason for dismissal was proved, so the unfair dismissal claim succeeded.

On the Equality Act claims, the tribunal found that the claimant's depression amounted to a disability and that the respondent's treatment of her after the 8 January 2019 meeting, the discussion of her mental health in front of clients, the handling of the manager vacancy and fit-note issues, the blocking of her parking pass, and the grievance and appeal process amounted to breaches of sections 20 and 21 and harassment under section 26. The tribunal accepted that the response to her complaints was inadequate and held that the conduct contributed to her resignation.

For remedy, the tribunal awarded a basic award of £2,766.50 and a compensatory award of £23,878.38 for unfair dismissal, made up of £13,658.31 past loss and £10,220.07 future loss. It assessed injury to feelings at £12,000 and added £520 interest, so the order recorded £12,520 on that head. The total award was £39,164.88. For recoupment purposes, the prescribed element was £15,924.81 for the period from 27 August 2019 to 23 September 2020, and the excess over the prescribed element was £23,240.07.