United Kingdom Employment Appeal Tribunal

APPEARANCES

 

For the Appellant	NO APPEARANCE BY OR REPRESENTATION ON BEHALF OF THE APPELLANT


 


JUDGE J HULL QC: This is an appeal to us Mr Richard Charles Brown who appeals against a decision of the Industrial Tribunal sitting at Bristol under the Chairmanship of Mr Croom-Johnson with two industrial members on 26 August 1997.

Mr Brown was employed by the Respondents, The Sue Ryder Foundation, the well-known charity, beginning his employment on 1 July 1996 and ending it, when he was dismissed, on 22 May 1997. As the dates show, he had not qualified to complain of unfair dismissal, or to claim other statutory rights, what he did claim was compensation for breach of contract.

So that was what the Industrial Tribunal had to consider, a claim for damages for breach of contract and they dealt with the matter very shortly. They said:

"The matters to be determined by the Tribunal are

(1) whether the applicant was dismissed for a reason falling within s.104 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and if not whether he is protected against unfair dismissal in view of the provisions of s.108 of the Act; and

(2) whether the applicant is entitled to holiday pay on termination of his employment.

the Tribunal find on the evidence that the rights which the applicant claims to have been infringed are contractual rights and not statutory rights and accordingly the provisions of s.104 do not apply. The Tribunal found that the applicant has not been continuously employed for a period of not less than two years..."

and then they went on to consider his complaint that he had been dismissed in breach of the terms of his contract of employment. The employers had said, and adduced evidence, that they dismissed him because he had misconducted himself. The Tribunal said:

"In accordance with the provisions of his contract of employment the Tribunal found that the applicant is not entitled to holiday pay on termination of employment on grounds that he was dismissed for reasons of misconduct."

The claim for notice did not, I think, apply because the employers were prepared to pay him his notice money. The Tribunal, on looking at the contract, said it did not give him an entitlement to holiday pay if he had been dismissed for reasons of misconduct. So they found those matters against him.

It appears to us that those are quite plainly decisions of fact which the Tribunal was entitled to reach. Mr Brown has not attended before us today to urge any other matters. We have considered what he says in his Notice of Appeal; we can none of us find any fairly arguable grounds for appeal and it follows that the appeal has to be dismissed at this stage rather than proceeding to a full hearing and we so order.