Ms Kimberley Davison v Tastybake North East Ltd: 2503611/2018
REASONS
[1]The claim is for a redundancy payment, breach of contract (notice pay) , and compensation for untaken annual leave. It was presented to the Tribunal on 26 December 2018 following a full period of Early Conciliation from 12 November to 12 December which tends to suggest the respondent was contacted by ACAS or at least ACAS tried its best to do so. The claim was served on 31 January 2019 on the respondent named as Tastybake (NE) Ltd at the address 1 Lloyd Court, Gateshead. 2.Those papers were returned by the Royal Mail marked “address inaccessible”. A company search revealed the existence of the respondent named above. At the direction of Employment Judge Buchanan on 11 February the claim was re-sent to the registered office address without changing the due date for the lodgement of a response which remained at 28 February. No response form was received but by email of 28 February from “Tastybake (NE) Ltd” the tribunal were informed the company “ now in the process of being closed by companies house, the company no longer has any directors is no longer trading. Nor does it have any premises or assets anymore”. The email is signed “regards James” .Zietsman and Du Toit t/a Berkshire Orthodontics-v-Stubbington held a company may be served at any known address or place of business which includes the last known place of business.[3]On 13 October 2018 the claimant was dismissed when the business stopped trading at the place she worked. A Companies House search does not show formal insolvency procedures in force but does show there has been filed on 19 February a directors application to have the company struck off. The claimant may be able to recover a redundancy payment from the Secretary of State but will only recover a notice and holiday pay if the company enters formal insolvency proceedings. She may wish to consider writing to the Registrar of Companies objecting to strike off[4]The claimant was born 26 June 1989. She started continuous employment on 31 March 2014. The law relating to redundancy payments is in Part XI of the Employment Rights Act 1996 ( the Act ). A claimant is entitled to 1 week’s gross pay for every complete year of continuous employment during the whole of which she was over 22 but under 41. Her entitlement is 4 weeks. Her weekly pay was £125.28.[5]The common law provides a contract of employment may be brought to an end by reasonable notice. Dismissal without such notice is termed ”wrongful”. Damages are the amount of pay, net of tax and NI, due during the notice period (see Addis v The Gramophone Company) which was 4 weeks. Her net pay was probably the same as her gross as she was below the tax threshold .[6]The Working Time Regulations 1998 say in Regulation 14 that where a worker's employment is terminated during the course of a leave year, and on the date on which the termination takes effect the proportion she has taken of the leave to which she is entitled in the leave year differs from the proportion of the leave year which has expired, her employer shall make a payment in lieu of untaken leave . The claimant states she is entitled to 21 days untaken annual leave and, though she will have worked less than 7 days per week, I take her to mean she is owed at least 3 weeks pay. It is more important I issue a judgment before the respondent is struck off than that I ask the claimant for further information and risk delay . T M Garnon EMPLOYMENT JUDGE SIGNED BY