Industrial Tribunals Northern Ireland Decisions

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URL: http://www.bailii.org/nie/cases/NIIT/2012/01612_11IT.html
Cite as: [2012] NIIT 01612_11IT, [2012] NIIT 1612_11IT

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THE INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNALS

CASE REF: 1612/11

CLAIMANT: Alan Stephen Mullen

RESPONDENT: Department for Employment and Learning

DECISION

The decision of the tribunal is that the claimant is entitled to be paid a redundancy payment, unpaid wages, holiday pay and a net payment in respect of wages in lieu of notice as set out in the attached Schedule.

Constitution of Tribunal:

Chairman (sitting alone): Mr S M P Cross

Appearances:

The claimant appeared in person and was not represented

The respondent was represented by Mr Cruikshanks of the Department for Employment and Learning.

1. The claimant, who was born on 20 January 1958, was employed as a manager/driver by John Hoey (trading as Tyraw Distribution) from 5 January 2003, until his employment ended on 20 March 2011. The claimant was dismissed as a result of the bankruptcy of Mr Hoey on 1 April 2011.

2. The tribunal is satisfied that his dismissal was as a result of redundancy. There was an attempt to sell the business as a going concern but this failed to happen and as a result all the drivers and other staff were declared redundant.

3. The claimant was a driver delivering newspapers and also employed partly in the office. As a result he was required to work on any night of the week. At the time of the closure of the business the claimant was working on the night shift of Sunday night to Thursday night, 11.30 pm to 4 am each night. He also worked in the office on administration. He was paid monthly £1,400.00 net (£1,815.00 gross). This sum was paid to him by Mr Hoey more often than not without a pay slip. His net weekly pay was £323.00 (gross £418.00).

4. At his dismissal the claimant was owed 2 week’s net pay, amounting to £646.00 and unpaid holiday pay. The company holiday year ran from 6 April each year and he was entitled to 30 days per annum. His untaken entitlement for the partial year amounted to 13 days at £64.60 per day, a sum of £839.80.

5. The claimant should have received 8 week’s pay in lieu of notice, of his dismissal but due to the situation no notice was given. However the claimant did do casual work for the next number of weeks, when the drivers tried to run a paper delivery service themselves. The net receipts for this work, together with Job Seekers Allowance which the claimant received when the attempt to do the deliveries came to an end, have to be deducted from the money that the claimant earned during this period. The claimant and some of his colleagues hired a van and incurred certain other expenses in their attempt to keep the business going. The tribunal was shown copies of bank statements and invoices for these expenses which resulted in a net profit to the claimant for the 8 weeks of the notice period of £2,476.00. The notice pay that he would have received from the respondent for the 8 week’s notice period would have been £2,584.00. He is therefore entitled to a sum of £2,584.00 (less £2,476.00 = £108.00 and less the income tax and national insurance on this net sum of £108.00). Mr Cruikshanks for the respondent informed the tribunal that his department would calculate the appropriate income tax and national insurance on this sum and pay the balance due to the claimant.

Schedule

Redundancy entitlement, based on statutory maximum gross

pay £400.00 per week

8 completed years employment, 12 x £400.00	£4,800.00
Unpaid wages due to the claimant, 2 x £323.00	£646.00
Unpaid holiday pay, 13 days at £64.60 per day	£839.80
Total due	£6,285.80

To this sum must be added the net sum for the payment in lieu of notice explained in paragraph 5 above.

This is a relevant decision for the purposes of the Industrial Tribunals (Interest) Order (Northern Ireland) 1990.

Chairman:

Date and place of hearing: 13 December 2011, Belfast.

Date decision recorded in register and issued to parties:

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