INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNALS 

CASE REF:   2633/11

CLAIMANT:	John Stranaghan

RESPONDENT:	1.	Valley Business Centre
	2.	Bullick Developments (1986) Ltd

DECISION

The unanimous decision of the tribunal is that the claimant’s claim of unfair dismissal is made out and the tribunal awards the claimant £22,540.00 against the second named respondent.

Constitution of Tribunal:

Chairman:		Mr I Wimpress

Members:		Mr Devlin
			Mr Crawford

Appearances:

The claimant, Mr Stanaghan, appeared in person.

The respondent was represented by Mrs Winsome Morrison.

1.	The tribunal was satisfied on the basis of the evidence and with the agreement of the parties that the claimant was employed by the second named respondent at all material times.

2.	The tribunal found that the claimant’s dismissal was both substantively and procedurally unfair.  Reasons for the tribunal’s decision were given at the hearing.  The tribunal increased the basic award to the claimant to 4 weeks in accordance with Article 154(1)A of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 being satisfied that this would not result in any injustice to the respondent and considered that the compensatory award should be uplifted by 50% in accordance with Article 17 of the Employment (Northern Ireland) Order 2003.

3.	The claimant’s claim that he was not provided with a written statement of his main terms and conditions of employment was not made out for reasons given at hearing and is dismissed.  The claim for a redundancy payment was not pursued by the claimant and is dismissed.

4.	Basic Award £250.00 x 4 weeks:         	  £1,000.00

	Loss of Statutory Rights:	     £300.00

	Compensatory Award

	29/7/11 to 16/2/12:	  £5,980.00

	Future Loss £920.00 x 12 months:	  £8,180.00

	Compensatory Award:	£14,160.00

	50% uplift:	 £7,080.00
	
	Total Compensatory Award including uplift:	£21,240.00

	TOTAL AWARD	£22,540.00

5.	As the claimant was in receipt of Jobseeker’s Allowance following his dismissal the Employment Protection (Recoupment of Jobseeker’s Allowance and Income Support) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 apply in this case.  Rule 4(3) requires that the tribunal set out:-

	(a)	the monetary award;

	(b)	the amount of the prescribed element, if any;

	(c)	the dates of the period to which the prescribed element is attributable; and

	(d)	the amount if any by which the monetary award exceeds the prescribed element.

6.	For the purposes of these proceedings the monetary award is £22,540.00.  The prescribed element is the amount of compensation for loss of earnings up to the date of the hearing.  The relevant dates are 29 July 2011 to 16 February 2012.  The tribunal finds that the amount of the prescribed element is £5,980.00.  The amount by which the monetary award exceeds the prescribed element in this case is £16,560.00.

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

Chairman:

Date and place of hearing:     15-16 February 2012, Belfast.

Date decision recorded in register and issued to parties: