Ms K Kuntapan v WOKYKO Ltd (in Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation) and The Secretary of State For Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: 1403749/2022
JUDGMENT
The Judgment of the Employment Judge sitting alone is that:[1]The claimant is entitled to pursue a claim for a protective award pursuant to section 189 (1) (d) of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (“the 1992 Act”) as an affected employee who has been dismissed as redundant.[2]The complaint that the First Respondent failed to comply with a requirement of section 188 of the 1992 Act is well founded.[3]The Tribunal makes a protective award in respect of the claimant who was dismissed as redundant on 24 October 2022 and orders the First Respondent to pay her remuneration for the protected period of 90 days beginning on that date. Employment Judge Goraj Date: 3 May 2023 Judgment sent to Parties: 18 May 2023 FOR THE TRIBUBAL OFFICE As reasons for the Judgment were announced orally at the Hearing written reasons shall not be provided unless they are requested by a party within 14 days of the sending of this Judgment to the parties. Online publication of judgments and reasons The Employment Tribunal (ET) is required to maintain a register of judgments and written reasons. The register must be accessible to the public. Judgments and reasons since February 2017 are now available at: https://www.gov.uk/employment-tribunal-decisions The ET has no power to refuse to place a judgment or reasons on the online register, or to remove a judgment or reasons from the register once they have been placed there. If you consider that these documents should be anonymised in anyway prior to publication, you will need to apply to the ET for an order to that effect under Rule 50 of the ET’s Rules of Procedure. Such an application would need to be copied to all other parties for comment and it would be carefully scrutinised by a judge (where appropriate, with panel members) before deciding whether (and to what extent) anonymity should be granted to a party or a witness. ANNEX TO THE JUDGMENT (PROTECTIVE AWARDS) Recoupment of Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance and Income Support The following particulars are given pursuant to the Employment Protection (Recoupment of Jobseekers Allowance and Income Support) Regulations 1996, SI 1996 No 2349, Regulation 5(2)(b), SI 2010 No 2429 Reg.5. The respondent is under a duty to give the Secretary of State the following information in writing:(a) the name, address and National Insurance number of every employee to whom the protective award relates; and(b) the date of termination (or proposed termination) of the employment of each such employee. That information shall be given within 10 days, commencing on the day on which the Tribunal announced its judgment at the hearing. If the Tribunal did not announce its judgment at the hearing, the information shall be given within the period of 10 days, commencing on the day on which the relevant judgment was respondent to do so within those times, then the information shall be given as soon as reasonably practicable thereafter. No part of the remuneration due to an employee under the protective award is payable until either (a) the Secretary of State has served a notice (called a Recoupment Notice) on the respondent to pay the whole or part thereof to the Secretary of State or (b) the Secretary of State has notified the respondent in writing that no such notice is to be served. This is without prejudice to the right of an employee to present a complaint to an Employment Tribunal of the employer’s failure to pay remuneration under a protective award. If the Secretary of State has served a Recoupment Notice on the respondent, the sum claimed in the Recoupment Notice in relation to each employee will be whichever is the lesser of: (i) the amount (less any tax or social security contributions which fall to be deducted therefrom by the employer) accrued due to the employee in respect of so much of the protected period as falls before the date on which the Secretary of State receives from the employer the information referred to above; OR (ii) the amount paid by way of or paid as on account of Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance or Income Support to the employee for any period which coincides with any part of the protective period falling before the date described in (i) above. The sum claimed in the Recoupment Notice will be payable forthwith to the Secretary of State. The balance of the remuneration under the protective award is then payable to the employee, subject to the deduction of any tax or social security contributions. A Recoupment Notice must be served within the period of 21 days after the Secretary of State has received from the respondent the above-mentioned information required to be given by the respondent to the Secretary of State or as soon as practicable thereafter. After paying the balance of the remuneration (less tax and social security contributions) to the employee, the respondent will not be further liable to the employee. However, the sum claimed in a Recoupment Notice is due from the respondent as a debt to the Secretary of State, whatever may have been paid to the employee, and regardless of any dispute between the employee and the Secretary of State as to the amount specified in the Recoupment Notice.