Mrs S French v The Granary Team Valley HELD AT: Newcastle Employment Tribunal BY: Cloud Video Platform (CVP) — 2025

The claimant, Mrs S French, had transferred to the respondent, The Granary Team Valley, under TUPE. The Tribunal found that her terms and conditions, including a contractual entitlement to £1 per hour above the National Minimum Wage, transferred to the respondent and that the respondent's failure to pay that rate amounted to a fundamental breach of contract. A claimed bonus payment was held to be discretionary and not a contractual term, so non-payment of the bonus was not a breach.

The Tribunal accepted the claimant's evidence about how she was spoken to and criticised in front of other staff, and found that this, together with the failure to pay tax on her behalf, refusing to pay outstanding holiday entitlement following the transfer, and failing to pay her pension, cumulatively (and potentially separately), with an incident on 8 May 2024 as the final straw, amounted to a breach entitling her to resign and treat the contract as at an end. The claimant had not affirmed the contract and resigned in response to those breaches.

The Tribunal held the dismissal was automatically unfair under the TUPE Regulations and also a constructive unfair dismissal at common law for breach of the express term as to pay and the implied term of trust and confidence. The unfair dismissal complaint was well founded and £18,365.93 was awarded (basic award £12,175.63; compensatory award £6,190.93, with no future loss because the claimant had not made sufficient efforts to seek further work after obtaining new employment on 6 August 2024). The breach of contract / unlawful deduction claim succeeded in the sum of £267.20, and the Working Time Regulations holiday pay claim succeeded in the sum of £192.50. Recoupment applies to part of the compensatory award.