THE INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNALS 

CASE REF:	9033/03

APPLICANT:	Eugene Coulter

RESPONDENT:	Seamus Donaghy and William Bleakley t/a Country Developments	

DECISION 

The unanimous decision of the tribunal is that the applicant’s complaint in respect of redundancy pay and pay in lieu of notice is well-founded and the tribunal orders the respondents, Seamus Donaghy and William Bleakley trading as ‘Country Developments’, to pay to the applicant the sum of £2,424.00 in respect of this complaint.

Appearances:
The applicant appeared and represented himself.
The respondent did not appear and was not represented.

This is a decision in summary form.

THE ISSUE

1.	The applicant’s complaint was of ‘no wages in lieu.  No redundancy’.  Although there was no formal appearance on behalf of the respondent, the Office of the Industrial Tribunals and Fair Employment Tribunal received a letter dated 30 September 2003 signed by a Seamus Donaghy, Director, which is referred to below, and correspondence from Arthur Boyd & Company, Chartered Accountants. The tribunal accordingly had to decide the applicant’s complaints.

THE TRIBUNAL’S FINDINGS

In consequence of the written and oral evidence adduced before it, the tribunal found the following facts:-

2.	The applicant was employed by a firm known as ‘Country Developments’.  There was before the tribunal a letter dated 30 September 2003 signed by Seamus Donaghy, who described himself as “Director”, stating that the applicant (identified by name and address) was “no longer employed by Country Developments due to the company going insolvent”. There was, further, before the tribunal a letter dated 6 September 2004 from Arthur Boyd, a Licensed Insolvency Practitioner, confirming that Mr Boyd had been appointed as Supervisor of Individual Voluntary Arrangements for both partners in Country Developments, Messrs W Bleakley and S Donaghy. Having noted this and having heard the applicant’s oral evidence, the tribunal determines that the proper respondents are Seamus Donaghy and William Bleakley trading in partnership as ‘Country Developments’.  The applicant commenced employment with the respondents on 23 November 1998 as a digger/driver.  He was continuously employed by the respondents from that date up until 4 September 2003, a period of four complete years.  The day previous to the date the employment ended, 3 September 2003, Mr Donaghy had spoken with him and had informed the applicant that the firm was closing down.  The last day of the employment was 4 September 2003 and the applicant was summarily dismissed by the respondents on that date.

3.	At the time of the employment coming to an end the applicant was a weekly paid employee earning a net wage per week of £216.00 and a gross wage of £260.00.  His date of birth was 30 June1941 and he was aged 62 at the effective date of termination.

THE TRIBUNAL’S DECISION 

4.	The applicant claimed that he had been made redundant and was thus entitled to a redundancy payment. A redundancy is defined in Article 174 of the of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 which Article states:

	174-(1)	For the purposes of this Order an employee who is dismissed shall be taken to be dismissed by reasons of redundancy if the dismissal is wholly or mainly attributable to:-

		(a)	The fact that his employer has ceased or intends to cease -  (i) to carry on the business for the purposes of which the employee was employed by him, or (ii) to carry on that business in the place where the employee was so employed, or

(b)	The fact that the requirements of that business -  (i) for employees to carry out work of a particular kind, or (ii) for employees to carry out work of a particular kind in the place where the employee was employed by the employer, have ceased or diminished or are expected to cease or diminish. 

5.	The tribunal is satisfied that the applicant was dismissed by the respondents, the reason for dismissal being redundancy due to the respondents’ business coming to an end.  The applicant had received no redundancy payment. He had been summarily dismissed without notice or pay in lieu thereof.

6.	In this case the tribunal determines that the applicant is entitled to wages in lieu of notice and to redundancy pay computed as follows:-

4 weeks pay in lieu of notice @ £216.00 per week 	=		£   864.00
Redundancy pay 6 x £260.00				=		£1,560.00
TOTAL                                                                                               £2,424.00

Accordingly, the tribunal finds the applicant’s complaint well-founded and Orders the respondents to pay to the applicant the sum of £2,424.00 in respect of pay in lieu of notice and redundancy pay.

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

Chairman:

Date and place of hearing:	9 September 2004, Belfast.

Date decision recorded in register and issued to parties: