Mr J Bamford v Moorland Private School Ltd (in voluntary liquidation): 6007215/2024 Mr J Bamford v Moorland Private School Ltd (in voluntary liquidation): 6007215/2024
JUDGMENT
AND REMEDY The Judgement of the Tribunal is that the respondent shall pay the claimant the sum of £7,156.12 (Seven Thousand, One Hundred and Fifty-Six Pounds, 12 Pence) in full and final settlement of the complaints seeking a redundancy payment, notice pay and unpaid annual leave entitlement and calculated on the following basis: A. REDUNDANCY PAYMENT[1]The claimant’s age at date of termination: 38 Subtotal/Total years, (therefore 1 week’s pay for each completed year)[2]The claimant’s effective date of termination when he was given formal notice of the ending of his employment: 7 August 2024.[3]Completed years of service at date of effective termination, (using an employment start date of 30 September 2019): 4 years[4]Weeks’ pay = £298 per week gross[5]Calculation for redundancy payment is therefore: (£298 x 4) x 1 = £1192.00 Subtotal (Redundancy Payment) £1192.00 B. NOTICE PAY[1]The claimant’s contract of employment provided at section 5.3 that if the employer failed to give the correct notice (which in this case was within the first two operational weeks of the summer term I April), a financial penalty of a maximum of £5,000 or the equivalent of a full terms pay.[2]The Tribunal concluded that this term meant that the financial penalty would be the lower of the two figures of a full terms pay or £5,000.[3]In this case, the claimant was entitled to his full terms pay because of the failure of the respondent to give the correct notice which is calculated at £3,580.32. Subtotal (Notice Pay) £3,580.32 C. UNPAID AND UNTAKEN ANNUAL LEAVE ENTITLEMENT (HOLIDAY PAY)[1]The claimant was entitled under his contract of employment to ‘approximately 16 weeks per year’.[2]The claimant had 8 weeks untaken annual leave entitlement remaining at his effective date of termination.[3]The claimant was therefore entitled to (£298 gross weekly pay x 8 weeks) = £2384.00 Subtotal (holiday pay) £2384.00 GRAND TOTAL £7156.12 Background information and findings of fact(1) The claimant gave evidence under oath and the decisions that I have made are based upon the evidential test of balance of probabilities and what I believed was the most likely situation or circumstance existing at the time.(2) The claimant was warned on 26 July 2024 by Jane Thornton of the respondent that he was at risk of redundancy. No formal notification of his being at risk of redundancy or a proposed date of redundancy was given.(3) No formal consultation took place and although the claimant was told verbally that he could apply for a job with the new organisation managing the Moorland School, no formal notification was given to him.(4) The claimant heard nothing further from the respondent and when he was ot paid on 31 July 2024, he began and completed early conciliation with ACAS ad the same day, presented a claim form to the Tribunal.(5) The Tribunal accepted the claim and gave Notice of the Claim and Notice of Hearing (for today’s date), to the respondent in a letter dated 5 August 2024. On this date, the respondent’s registered office remained as the School’s Clitheroe address and therefore it was sent to the correct address. The Tribunal consulted the relevant file held online by Companies House.(6) The respondent did not change its registered office to that of the appointed Insolvency Practitioner in Leeds until 6 August 2024. Given that the corporate structure of the school was in the process of changing but the actual school and location remained in operation with many of the same managers in place, I find that they would have reasonably been expected to forward any Tribunal correspondence to the new address for service during subsequent weeks. Accordingly, the respondent had notice of the claim and has no reasonable excuse for failing to respond to the claim.(7) The claimant was sent a letter from the respondent’s Insolvency Practitioner dated 1 August 2024 before the formally varied the respondent’s registered office address. The letter confirmed that the claimant’s employment had been terminated but failed to provide an actual date of termination. I found that the claimant did not receive this letter until 7 August 2024 and accordingly this is the date of his effective date of termination.(8) The respondent was given effective notice of the claim and failed to present a response resisting the claim and failed to attend the hearing today. Accordingly, it was appropriate for the case to be determined today and for the above judgment to be given despite the absence of the respondent or their Insolvency Practitioner.