Decision date
21 May 2026
Tribunal
Employment Tribunal
Jurisdiction
England & Wales
Judge
Employment Judge Smyth
Compensation awarded
£3,516
Basic Award
£1,491
Compensatory
£2,026
Extracted from judgment text — may not capture every award component precisely.
Case Summary
The claimant was dismissed when his fixed-term contract expired and was not renewed due to a recruitment freeze. The tribunal found the dismissal unfair due to procedural failings but applied a 90% Polkey reduction. The claimant also failed to mitigate his loss.
Why this outcome?
The dismissal was unfair because the respondent failed to follow proper procedures when deciding not to renew the claimant's fixed-term contract, although a 90% Polkey reduction was applied reflecting the high likelihood the claimant would have been dismissed anyway had a fair procedure been followed.
Claim Types
Related guide
Unfair dismissal cases won in the UK
Compare this judgment with other successful unfair dismissal cases and controlled win reasons.
Related claim guides
Use these claim-type pages to compare this decision with other published tribunal cases, outcome patterns, and visible award data.
Key Issues
- •Dismissal by reason of non-renewal of fixed-term contract
- •Some other substantial reason (recruitment freeze)
- •Procedural fairness in dismissal process
- •Polkey reduction (90% chance of dismissal in any event)
- •Mitigation of loss
Original published judgment
The full source document is available from the official publication page.
Something doesn't look right?
Report a wrong claim type, outcome, summary, or award.
Case Details
- Case No.
- 6031742/2025
- Tribunal
- Employment Tribunal
- Level
- First instance
- Decision
- 21 May 2026
- Published
- 25 June 2026
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Judge
- Employment Judge Smyth
- Representation
- Legally represented