THE INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNALS

CASE REF:	535/10

CLAIMANT:			Jennifer Dickson

RESPONDENT:	Irish School of Yoga Limited t/a Yoga Therapy and Training Centre

DECISION
The claimant is entitled to pay in lieu of her balance notice entitlement and a redundancy payment. The respondent shall pay the claimant £2750.19

Constitution of Tribunal:
Chairman (Sitting Alone):	Ms M Bell

Appearances:			
The claimant appeared in person.  
The respondent did not appear and was not represented.

1.	The claimant in her claim complained that she had not received her full notice entitlement or a redundancy payment on termination of her employment by the respondent.

2.	No response was presented by the respondent.

3.	Payslips and the P45 received by the claimant from the respondent show the claimant’s employer as Irish School of Yoga Limited and the title of the respondent is accordingly amended from ‘Mr Roy Griffin ‘ to ‘Irish School of Yoga Limited t/a Yoga Therapy and Training Centre.’

Issues

4.	The issues for the Tribunal were:

-	Is the respondent entitled to pay in lieu of notice?

-	Is the claimant is entitled to a redundancy payment?

Evidence

5.	The Tribunal considered the claim, documentation handed in by the claimant and heard oral evidence from the claimant.

Findings of Fact

6.	The claimant who was born on 30 September 1958 commenced employment in April 2002 as office manager for Ms Marie Quail who traded as Yoga Therapy and Training Centre, her employment transferred to the respondent from 1 September 2007 when the business was sold. As a result of financial circumstances the respondent suggested a reduction to the claimant in her working hours from four to two days per week with a view to increasing them again should matters improve, the claimant agreed and from the beginning of October 2009 was paid £796.87 gross per month, being £183.89 gross per week and £163.87 net.

7.	In the middle of January 2010 Mr Roy Griffin, Director of the Respondent company gave the claimant two week’s notice of termination of her employment as the respondent was going to close the office in Newry in which the claimant was employed and to move to Dublin.

8.	The claimant’s employment terminated on 29 January 2010 and she has not  received a redundancy payment or payment in lieu of notice from the respondent.

The Law

Notice

9.	Under Article 118B of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 an Employer is required to give minimum notice to terminate the contract of employment of a person of not less than one weeks’ notice for each year of continuous employment if his period of continuous employment is two years or more but less than 12 years.

10.	Under the Industrial Tribunal Extension of Jurisdiction Order (Northern Ireland) 1994 an employee may bring a claim for damages for breach of his contract of employment or for a sum due under that contract or any other contract connected with his employment before an Industrial Tribunal if the claim arises out of or is outstanding on termination of his employment.

Redundancy  Payment

11.	Article 170 of the 1996 Order provides that an employer shall pay a redundancy
payment to any employee of his, if the employee is dismissed by the employer by reason of redundancy.  Circumstances in which an employee who is dismissed shall be taken to be dismissed by reason of redundancy are set out in Article 174 of the 1996 Order and include if the dismissal is wholly or mainly attributable to the fact that his employer has ceased or intends to cease to carry on that business in the place where the employee was so employed.

12.	Article 197 of the 1996 Order sets out how the amount of the redundancy payment shall be calculated.

13.	Under Article 22 (6) of the 1996 Order provision is made such that the calculation date for the amount of a week’s pay for the purposes of Article 197 is the date on which notice would have been given had the contract been terminable by notice and been terminated by the employer giving such notice as is required by Article 118 to terminate the contract and the notice expired on the effective date of termination whether or not those conditions were fulfilled.

Applying the Law to Facts Found

14.	On consideration of all the evidence before it the Tribunal is satisfied of the following:

Notice

Article 118B of the 1996 Order implies a minimum notice requirement of seven weeks into the claimant’s contract of employment with the respondent, the claimant having seven years continuous employment at her effective date of termination, the claimant was only given two week’s notice of termination of her employment and is entitled to five weeks net pay in lieu of her balance notice entitlement, amounting to £819.35.

Redundancy Payment

The claimant’s dismissal was by reason of a redundancy as defined in Article 174 of the 1996 Order, the respondent having ceased to carry on the business for the purposes of which the claimant was employed by it in the place where the claimant was so employed, and the claimant is entitled to a redundancy payment calculated in accordance with Article 197 of the 1996 Order as follows;

7 years continuous employment x 1.5 x £183.89	= £1,930.84

Conclusion

15.	The respondent in breach of the claimant’s contract of employment failed on termination of her employment to give the claimant her full statutory minimum notice entitlement or pay her in lieu thereof. The claimant is entitled to pay in lieu of her balance notice entitlement and a statutory redundancy payment. The respondent shall pay the claimant £2750.19.

16.	This is a relevant decision for the purposes of the Industrial Tribunals (Interest) Order (Northern Ireland) 1996.

Chairman:

Date and place of hearing: 21 May 2010, Belfast.

Date decision recorded in register and issued to parties: