Mr J Cook v Secretary of State for Business & Trade — 2024

The claimant was a director and 50% shareholder of J&L Leisure Limited, which operated a restaurant and entered creditors voluntary liquidation on 13 February 2024. He applied to the respondent for a statutory redundancy payment, unpaid wages and holiday pay, but the respondent refused his application by letter dated 24 May 2024. The claimant presented his tribunal claim on 15 September 2024.

The Tribunal found that the section 188 ERA complaints about unpaid wages and holiday pay were out of time. It held that the three-month time limit ran from the 24 May 2024 decision letter and expired at the latest on 23 August 2024. The claimant had been told he could bring a tribunal claim, had been directed to guidance explaining the relevant time limit, and had access to advice from an insolvency practitioner. The Tribunal found it was reasonably practicable for him to lodge the claim within the primary time limit and therefore had no jurisdiction to consider those complaints.

On employment status, the Tribunal found that the March 2020 Statement of Main Terms of Employment did not reflect the reality of the relationship at the date of insolvency. The claimant was not supervised or managed, determined his own and others' hours, was paid by reference to what he considered the company could afford rather than by hours worked or the national minimum wage, and did not take holidays in the way employees did. The Tribunal concluded he was not an employee under section 230(1) ERA at the relevant date, so he had no entitlement to a statutory redundancy payment and the section 166 complaint was dismissed.