(sitting alone) Aleksandra Kalinowska v Represented by: Ms E Drysdale, Trainee Solicitor Blue Morpho Body and Mind Limited — 2019

Aleksandra Kalinowska was employed by Blue Morpho Body and Mind Ltd as a physiotherapist from 23 March 2016 to 13 September 2018. She worked 25 hours a week at £9.50 gross per hour, received guaranteed overtime and commission, and the tribunal found that she had not been issued with a written statement of employment particulars. The respondent ended her employment on 13 September 2018 because she refused to work weekends, and the tribunal recorded that no investigation or meeting took place before the dismissal.

On the unfair dismissal complaint, the tribunal held that the absence of any investigation or hearing meant the dismissal was unfair. It applied the ERA 1996 unfair dismissal framework, including section 98(4), and took the ACAS Code of Practice into account. The claimant was found to have mitigated her losses until the end of January 2019, with her own business earnings for October 2018 to January 2019 totalling £1,621.86.

The tribunal assessed a basic award of £685.24 and a compensatory award of £5,580.59 before uplift. It then found that the respondent had wholly and unreasonably failed to comply with the ACAS Code and increased the compensatory award by 25% to £6,975.73. The prescribed element of the unfair dismissal award was £6,975.73 for the period from 14 September 2018 to 31 January 2019, and the monetary award was £7,660.97.

The tribunal also upheld the unlawful deduction from wages claim, finding that £74.95 had been deducted from the claimant's final wages for changing the locks after her departure and that there was no contractual term authorising the deduction. Separately, because the claimant had more than two years' service and had not been given a statement of employment particulars, the tribunal made an award of £1,370.49, described as the higher award of four weeks' pay under section 38 of the Employment Act 2002.