COMPENSATION

Morgans v Alpha Plus Security Ltd

EAT: Burton J (President), Mr P Gammon and Mr R Lyons: 17 January 2005

An employment tribunal upheld the applicant's complaint that he had been unfairly dismissed and, on his claim for compensation, found that following his dismissal he had been in receipt of incapacity benefit. The tribunal made a compensatory award for loss of earnings, in accordance with section 123 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, deducting the full amount of incapacity benefit he had received.

The applicant appealed.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal held:
The statutory basis for recovery of compensation for unfair dismissal in section 123 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 was the reimbursement of the applicant's economic loss, the object being to compensate fully but not to award a bonus, and, if no deduction were made for receipt of benefits that would not have been paid had the applicant remained employed and which were not recoupable, the applicant would recover more than his loss. Accordingly, the applicant had to give credit for the total amount of invalidity benefit he had received.

The appeal was dismissed.

Appearances: Martin Wynne Jones (pro bono) for the applicant; Andrew Knorpel, solicitor (ASB Law, Crawley), for the employers.