Mr A Abbas v RSA Leisure Ltd — 2026

Mr Abbas worked as a waiter at the India Gate restaurant from 1 December 2022 until 22 August 2025. His employment transferred from Fortblane Ltd to RSA Leisure Ltd on 10 December 2023. The tribunal accepted that Mr Singh dismissed him during an exchange at work on 22 August 2025. Applying the objective approach in Omar v Epping Forest District Citizens’ Advice, it found that Mr Singh’s words, considered with his subsequent conduct, conveyed a dismissal. RSA Leisure Ltd established no potentially fair reason under section 98 ERA 1996 and followed no fair procedure. The unfair dismissal claim succeeded.

The tribunal awarded £732.60 as a basic award, based on two complete years of service, the claimant’s age and weekly pay of £244.20. He found another job that fully replaced his income after eight weeks and was found to have acted reasonably in mitigating his loss. To avoid overlap with the separate notice award, compensation covered six weeks of lost earnings (£1,465.20), plus £350 for loss of statutory rights. The tribunal increased this £1,815.20 by 25% to £2,269 because the respondent unreasonably failed to follow the ACAS Code. There were no future losses, and recoupment did not apply.

The national minimum wage claim failed. The tribunal preferred contemporaneous records stating that the claimant worked 20 hours per week to his account of working 25 hours. His wife could not reliably corroborate his working hours because she was not present when he started and finished work. Although the respondent did not produce its working-time records, the tribunal found insufficient credible support for the claimed additional hours. On its finding of 20 hours per week, the payments met or exceeded the applicable minimum wage.

The holiday pay claim succeeded because the claimant was not given an effective opportunity to take paid annual leave. He was not paid when taking time off, was not told that paid leave was available and was not warned that untaken leave would be lost. The tribunal rejected the contention that holiday pay had been included in wages throughout employment; it was first separately identified in the July and August 2025 payslips. Applying Smith v Pimlico Plumbers Ltd, the tribunal held that regulation 13 leave accumulated throughout employment. Its calculation valued 11.6 weeks at £2,832.72, reduced by £114.06 already paid, producing an award of £2,718.66. It did not decide whether the additional 1.6 weeks under regulation 13A also carried forward.

The claimant was entitled to two weeks’ notice, and the tribunal found no circumstances justifying summary dismissal. It awarded £488.40 for wrongful dismissal. The separate pension contributions claim was dismissed. The tribunal found no express agreement or basis for implying a contractual right to employer pension contributions, including under the officious bystander test. It held that the claimant’s right arose under the statutory auto-enrolment regime and could not be enforced through this tribunal claim.