Industrial Tribunals Northern Ireland Decisions

THE INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNALS

CASE REF: 873/17

CLAIMANT: Amanda Smith

RESPONDENT: Department for the Economy

DECISION

(A)          Pursuant to Article 205 of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 ("ERO") and, for that purpose, we determine that, in January 2017, the company which used to be known as Greetings International Ltd ("Greetings International") became liable to make a redundancy payment of £3,010 to the claimant.

(B)          The claimant's appeal in respect of holiday pay under Article 233 of ERO, is
well-founded and the Department ought to make a payment of approximately £100 to the claimant in respect of holiday pay.

(C)          The claimant's appeal in respect of notice pay, under Article 233 of ERO, is
well-founded and the Department ought to make a payment of £1,742 to the claimant in respect of notice pay.

Constitution of Tribunal:

Employment Judge: Employment Judge Buggy

Members: Mrs C Stewart

Mr I Rosbotham

Appearances:

The claimant was self-represented.

The Department was represented by Mr Mark McEvoy, Barrister-at-Law.

REASONS

1.             We will provide our written reasons for our Decision in due course. In the meantime, the following may be a useful summary of those reasons.

2.             We are satisfied that there was not a transfer, within the meaning of the TUPE Regulations of any entity to which the claimant was assigned. In particular, even if there had been effective transfers of staff, there still would have not have been a TUPE transfer, because no other elements of the business, such as the shop or the trade name, were transferred.

3.             We are sure that the Card Land letter of 24 October 2016 did not constitute an effective notification of the dismissal of the claimant from her employment in Greetings International, and that it did not constitute an effective of her appointment as a staff-member of the company which used to be called GI Staff Ltd.

4.             We know that the claimant and the Department will be having a conversation about the precisely proper quantification of the amounts due to her in respect of notice pay and holiday pay. If the parties agree on the amounts precisely due to her, and if any of those amounts are different from the amounts specified above, we are very open to the possibility of amending the amounts specified above accordingly.

5.             If the relevant discussions with the Department do not end in consensus, and if the amounts at stake is/are significant, either or both parties is/are welcome to ask this tribunal to reconvene for the purpose of considering remedies in this case.

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

Employment Judge:

Date and place of hearing: 25 September 2017, Belfast.

Date decision recorded in register and issued to parties: