Mr B Haughey v Northwind s Limited t/a Goals — 2024

Mr B Haughey worked for Northwind 5s Limited trading as Goals from 13 February 2023 until 21 February 2024 as a Finance Business Partner. The dispute concerned two matters: notice pay and holiday pay on termination. The tribunal accepted that the offer letter referred to three months' notice, but found that the contract of employment signed on 2 February 2023 superseded the offer letter and required the claimant to give one month's notice after probation.

On the events of 21 February 2024, the tribunal found that the claimant admitted using the respondent's pre-paid debit card for personal transactions and that, when told he was to be suspended pending investigation, he said he was resigning with immediate effect. The tribunal accepted the respondent's evidence that there was no discussion about notice periods and found that the claimant's immediate resignation and later email did not amount to giving contractual notice. Applying Geys v Société Générale, London Branch, the tribunal held that the claimant purported to terminate the contract without proper notice and was in repudiatory breach. The respondent's email accepting notice brought the contract to an end, and the claimant's claim for notice pay therefore failed.

The holiday pay claim succeeded. The parties agreed that on termination the claimant had 26.1 hours of accrued but untaken holiday worth £629.61. The tribunal found that the respondent's email saying the claimant would be paid in full for February addressed salary only, and that neither that email nor the February payslip referred to holiday pay. It also held that regulation 35 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 prevented contracting out of the statutory obligation to pay accrued holiday on termination. The tribunal therefore awarded £629.61, with the claimant responsible for any tax or National Insurance.