Background:

The claimant commenced employment in September 2016 with the respondent as a Butcher.  The employment came to an end in August 2021.   The claimant did not receive a written statement of terms and conditions. The respondent said this was because they were unaware of the requirement.

The respondent closed the business on 7th August 2021.  The respondent asserted that her husband had indicated to all employees of the business two weeks before the date that the business was due to close.   However, the claimant disputed that.

The claimant brought a claim for notice pay, holiday pay and redundancy pay.

Outcome:

The Tribunal found that, on the evidence, there had been no notice given of the redundancy to the employees.  There was however a genuine redundancy situation due to the difficult trading circumstances requiring the business to close.  As a result, the claimant was successful in his claim for redundancy pay, notice pay and holiday pay.   The Tribunal noted that the claimant had been given less annual leave entitlement than the statutory entitlement.  He had only been given 22 days compared to the full entitlement of 28 days. The Tribunal allowed for six days holiday pay entitlement for each year of the claimant’s employment.

Practical Guidance for Employers:

This case demonstrates the onus of employers to be aware of the basic statutory entitlements for employees.  In this case, there was a failure to give the requisite amount of holidays but also the failure to provide a statement of terms and conditions at the beginning of the employment.   This causes additional issues when there are difficulties such as the business having to close due to trading difficulties.