E.T. Z (WR) EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS (SCOTLAND) Case Nos: 4113297/2019 and 4113298/2019 (V) Held remotely on May 2021 Employment Judge W A Meiklejohn Ms Lauren Ritchie v Represented by:20 Mr F Lefevre – Solicitor Caledonia Homecare Ltd — 2021

The respondent did not take part in the final hearing and did not comply with the tribunal's document orders. The tribunal found that Mr Imrie's email of 27 August 2019 dismissed both claimants with notice expiring on 31 August 2019. Because the respondent gave no evidence of the reason for dismissal, it had not shown a potentially fair reason under the ERA 1996, so both dismissals were found unfair. The tribunal noted the respondent's references to a need for a full-time registered manager and said the dismissals might have been redundancy dismissals, but that was not established on the evidence.

For the first claimant, the tribunal held that her notice entitlement was five weeks and that the later letter purporting to give one month's notice was ineffective because she had already been dismissed. Her breach of contract claim for notice pay therefore succeeded, with an award of £470.31. On the unfair dismissal claim, the tribunal made a basic award of £1,630.30 and a compensatory award of £15,412.50, consisting of £15,112.50 for loss of earnings to 17 September 2020 and £300 for loss of statutory employment protection rights.

For the second claimant, the tribunal made a basic award of £1,018.20. It calculated her loss of earnings over the period from 1 October 2019 to the hearing and beyond, but the compensatory award was capped under s.124 at £13,236.60. The tribunal accepted that both claimants were single parents with childcare constraints, so neither had failed to mitigate loss. It declined any ACAS uplift, holding that the Code was not engaged because the matter was not disciplinary and might have been redundancy, and it noted that the compensatory awards may be subject to recoupment.