Mr T Mooney v Tennent’s Caledonian Breweries UK Ltd: 8000958/2024
JUDGMENT
The Judgment of the Employment Tribunal is: (First) The claimant’s former employer, against whom he is entitled to direct his complaint for breach of contract (non payment of contractual redundancy entitlement), is Tennent’s Caledonian Breweries UK Limited, Company Number SC362352, having their registered office at 161 Duke ETZ4(WR) Street, Glasgow, G31 1JD an owned subsidiary of C&C Group plc, a Company registered in Ireland with Company Number 383466 with its registered office at Bulmers House, Keeper Road, Crumlin, Dublin 12. (Second) That the claimant was continuously employed by his transferor employer from the 29th of June 2009, and thereafter upon Transfer of Undertakings to the respondent, effective as at 8th October 2018, until 16th February 2024 on which last date the respondent dismissed the claimant for reason of redundancy. (Third) That on the 4th of April 2011, the claimant was wrongly summarily dismissed by the respondent and was reinstated by them, upon Appeal, on the 11th of April 2011, that is less than one week later. (Fourth) That the 5 days which elapsed between the claimant’s wrongful dismissal on the 4th of April and his reinstatement by the respondents on the 11th of April 2011 did not, in the circumstances, constitute a break in his continuity of employment. (Fifth) As at the Effective Date of Termination of his Employment on 16th February 2024, the claimant whose date of birth is the 19th of August 1980, was in receipt of an annual gross salary of £27,720.73 or £533.09 per week, was 43 years of age and had accrued 14 complete years of continuous employment with the respondent entitling him, in terms of section 135 and section 162 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, to receive a statutory redundancy payment of 1.5 weeks gross wages x 14 years of continuous service (1.5 x £533.09 x 14) being £11,194.82. (Sixth) The claimant was separately entitled in contract to receive from the respondents an enhanced redundancy payment at the rate, as evidenced in his Proposed Redundancy Payment Schedule issued by the respondents, £2,165.68 gross for each completed year of service. (Seventh) On or about the 28th of February 2024 the respondent paid to the claimant and the claimant received, a contractual redundancy payment of £25,988 calculated by the respondent at the rate of £2,165.68 gross per completed year of service but based upon only 12 complete years of continuous employment. (Eighth) The respondent accordingly underpaid the claimant, who had in fact accrued 14 complete years of continuous service, in respect of his contractual entitlement to a redundancy payment by 2 completed years of service i.e. by 2 x £2,165.68 in the sum of £4,331.36. (Ninth) In so underpaying the claimant the respondents acted in breach of contract; and the respondent shall pay to the claimant the sum of £4,331.36 in damages for breach of contract, which is being the sum of money the payment of which will place the claimant, who is the innocent party, in the position that he would have been in but for the respondent’s breach, the same being the measure of damages for breach of contract in Scots law. NOTE An Oral Judgment together with Oral Reasons was delivered at the conclusion of the hearing. Accordingly no Written Note of Reasons is attached to this Judgment. J d’Inverno