THE INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNALS

CASE REF:    127/11

CLAIMANT:	Brian Lyttle

RESPONDENT:	Andor Design Ltd  (In Liquidation)

       
DECISION

The decision of the tribunal is that the claimant was unfairly dismissed by reason of redundancy and that the respondent is ordered to pay the claimant £899.99 outstanding wages, £542.50 outstanding mileage allowance, £207.69 outstanding holiday pay and £1709.21 compensation.

Constitution of Tribunal:

Chairman:	Ms P Sheils

Members:	Ms G Ferguson
	Ms M Galloway	

Appearances:

The claimant appeared and was represented by Mr Andrew Walker of Andrew Walker and Company Solicitors.

The respondent presented no response, did not appear and were not represented.  The Tribunal noted that the office had been advised that as and from the 14 February 2011 the respondent had gone into voluntary liquidation.

SOURCES OF EVIDENCE

Witnesses

1.	The Tribunal heard from the claimant.

DOCUMENTS

2.	The Tribunal saw correspondence between the respondent’s former advisers and the claimant’s Solicitor.  These gave facts:-

	1.	The claimant commenced employment with the respondent on 14 September 2009 as a Field Sales Representative.

	2.	On 29 September 2010 the claimant was invited to attend a meeting.  He was given no information prior to the meeting and assumed it was a normal weekly sales meeting.

	3.	At this meeting the claimant was told that, as from the date of the meeting, his employment with the respondent was “finished”.  He was advised that the decision had been taken and that his employment was terminated.

	4.	At that time another Sales Representative, son of the company’s Director, Barry Boylan, continued to work in the company.  The claimant stated that he was not advised why he had been selected for redundancy.

3.	The respondent company had been trading for a few weeks in 2009 prior to the claimant joining it.  However, the claimant stated to the Tribunal that one of its Directors, Mr Barry Boylan, was also company Director of some experience and at that also, a Director of a company of some 100 employees.

4.	In view of this the Tribunal decided to increase the claimant’s basic award by 50% to reflect the disregard for the statutory dismissal procedures.

5.	The claimant commenced new employment within two weeks of his dismissal.  However, his net weekly salary was £70.00 less that it had been with the respondent.  The Tribunal awarded ongoing loss in respect of this but only up until 14 February 2010, when the company went into voluntary liquidation.

6.	The claimant was advised of his right to appeal this decision but did not do so.  He lodged a grievance with the respondent but this was not answered.

THE TRIBUNAL’S CONCLUSIONS

7.	The Tribunal concluded that the claimant had been unfairly dismissed by reason of redundancy.

8.	The Tribunal concluded that the claimant was entitled to the following outstanding monies:-

Basic Award:	£346.14	
Outstanding Wages:	£899.99	
Outstanding Mileage Allowance:	£542.50	
Outstanding Holiday Pay:	£207.69	

9.	The Tribunal considered the respondent’s failure to follow the statutory dismissal procedures.  The Tribunal was advised that Andor Ltd was a small company of 14 employees.

10.	Compensation

Basic Award:	£346.14	
Uplift 50%:	£173.07	
Total Basic:	£519.21	

11.	Ongoing Loss

Weekly net loss £70.00 between 11 October 2010  -  14 February 2011  -  17 weeks  =	
£1,190.00	
		
Total Compensation:	£1,709.21	
		
Total Award:	£3,359.39	
		
And the Tribunal Orders the respondent to pay the claimant this amount.	

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

Chairman:

Date and place of hearing:  27 May 2011, Belfast.

Date decision recorded in register and issued to parties: