THE INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNALS

CASE REF:    106/11 

CLAIMANT:	Elaine Dempster

RESPONDENT:	Miriam Cunningham

DECISION

It is the unanimous decision of the panel that the claimant is entitled to receive the following sums for the undernoted heads of claim:-

Head of Claim	Amount	
Redundancy Payment:	£1,666.88	
Pay in Lieu of Notice:	£951.50	
Holiday Pay:	£689.91	
TOTAL	£3,308.29	

The respondent is ordered to pay the sum of £3,308.29 to the claimant.

Constitution of Tribunal:

Chairman:	Ms W A Crooke

Members:	Mrs T Kelly
	Mr G Jones

Appearances:

The claimant appeared in person and represented herself.

The respondent did not appear and indicated that she did not intend to resist the claim.  Therefore the Tribunal had regard to the response of the respondent which was dated 2 February 2011 and received by the Tribunal on 4 February 2011 in reaching its decision.

THE CLAIM AND THE DEFENCE

1.	The claimant claimed that she was entitled to a redundancy payment, a payment in lieu of notice and holiday pay.  The respondent did not dispute these claims.

THE RELEVANT LAW

2.	The relevant law in respect of the right to a redundancy payment is contained in Article 170 of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996.

3.	The right of an employee not to suffer unauthorised deductions is contained in Article 45 of the same Order.

THE FACTS FOUND

4.	The claimant worked for the respondent as manageress of the respondent’s coffee shop for four days per week.

5.	At the time of termination of employment she had five completed years of service and was in receipt of a gross weekly wage of £222.25 and a net weekly wage of £190.30.  At termination of employment she was 51 years of age.

6.	On 17 September 2010, a representative of NIE called at the respondent’s premises and required the claimant to empty the shop of customers as he wished to disconnect electricity to the respondent’s premises.  Despite previous reassurances to the contrary from the respondent to the claimant, the respondent confirmed on that day that this meant that the business had closed and that all her staff were redundant.  The business closed that day and the claimant did not receive any notice.  Although the claimant did not have a written contract of employment she understood that she had a holiday entitlement of 22.5 days per year of which 14.5 days remained untaken at termination of employment.

CONCLUSIONS

7.	It is the unanimous decision of the Tribunal that the claimant is entitled to receive a redundancy payment, a payment in lieu of notice and the arrears of holiday pay untaken at the time of termination of her employment and these amounts are calculated as set out below:-

	Redundancy Payment

	As the claimant was 51 years of age at termination of employment and her five completed years of service all happened when she was over forty-one years of age, the claimant is entitled to a multiplier of 1.5.

	Gross Pay

	£222.25  x  5  x  1.5	=	£1,666.88

	Notice Pay

	The claimant is entitled to notice pay at the rate of one week for every completed year worked.  Therefore the calculation is as follows:-

	£190.30  x  5	=	   £951.50

	Holiday Pay

	The claimant received the amount of £47.58 net per day and her holiday pay entitlement is calculated as follows:-

	£47.58  x  14.5 days 	=	   £689.91

8.	SUMMARY

	Redundancy Pay:		£1,666.88

	Notice Pay:		   £951.50

	Holiday Pay:		   £689.91

	Total		£3,308.29

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

Chairman:

Date and place of hearing: 10 May 2011, Belfast.

Date decision recorded in register and issued to parties: