Mr Daouda Sangare v Kingdom of Sweets Limited — 2024

This was an undefended claim brought by Mr Daouda Sangare against Kingdom of Sweets Ltd. The tribunal found that his employment ran from 11 November 2014 to 13 May 2024, that he was employed as a store manager, and that after an email saying the respondent was in administration there was no process in relation to his dismissal. The tribunal also found that he had not received redundancy pay, notice pay, or pay for annual leave, and it calculated gross weekly pay at £853.81 and net weekly pay at £646.84 from the available payslips.

The complaint of breach of contract in respect of notice pay was well-founded. The tribunal accepted the contractual notice position as 11 weeks, based on nine weeks' service plus two weeks, and awarded £9,391.94 less deductions for income tax and national insurance. In the unfair dismissal claim, the tribunal found that the claimant was unfairly dismissed. It applied the statutory formula using the gross weekly pay figure capped at £700 for the basic award and awarded £8,050.00.

For compensation, the tribunal found that with reasonable efforts the claimant would be able to obtain employment at a rate commensurate with his former job by 30 weeks after dismissal. It therefore assessed the compensatory award by reference to a further 19 weeks after the 11-week notice period, producing a compensatory award of £12,289.96. It also awarded £500 for loss of statutory rights, reflecting the time needed to build up protection in new employment. The failure to pay annual leave entitlement was also well-founded, and the tribunal awarded £1,707.63 for two weeks' annual leave less deductions for income tax and national insurance.