Beijing Ton Ren Tang (UK) Ltd v Ms S P Wang UKEAT/0024/09/DA

The Claimant, Ms Wang, was a Chinese Medicine Professor working at the Respondent company, Beijing Ton Ren Tang (UK) Ltd. The Respondent is a Herb and Health shop. The Claimant was unfairly dismissed by the Respondent.

The principles to be drawn from this case are:

• Claimants should not unreasonably turn down alternative employment following dismissal but their circumstances must be taken into account. In this case, the Claimant felt upset and depressed and it was held that it would not reasonable to expect her, when suddenly bowled over with the unexpected dismissal, to get herself straight back into the job market.
• There is no procedural irregularity if the Tribunal had given notice to the parties that they would not be bound to the salary figures previously provided by the parties.
• Payment-in-lieu of holidays over a period of years can be claimed under contract law which does not offend the Working Time Regulations. The Claimant had agreed with the Respondent that she would receive payment for her untaken holidays throughout the 6 years she was there at the termination of her employment.