Employment Appeal Tribunal dismisses appeal in Slater & Gordon bonus dispute

An appeal against an employment tribunal’s decision over a disputed bonus from national firm Slater & Gordon has been dismissed.

In 2021, Rob Moon, a former costs resolution manager at Slater & Gordon’s Cardiff office, brought a number of employment tribunal claims against the firm including unlawful deduction from wages in relation to his bonus award, harassment and unfair dismissal. The tribunal found in favour of Moon in relation to his unfair dismissal claim only, finding the unfairness was limited to the fact that he had not been allowed a right of appeal against his dismissal due to redundancy.

Moon appealed the tribunal’s judgment in relation to his unlawful deduction, harassment and unfair dismissal.

Bruce Carr KC, sitting in the Employment Appeal Tribunal, said that while the tribunal appeared not to have properly considered the definition of ‘wages’, any error was academic. He said the employment tribunal would have ‘inevitably’ still dismissed the claim.

He said: ‘Under the terms of [Moon’s] 2015 contract, as identified by the ET, any entitlement that [Moon] had to bonus was indeed clearly subject to a discretion and could not on any view be said to be an entitlement to an ascertainable sum that could be recovered as a consequence of a complaint made under section 23 [of the Employment Rights Act 1996]. 

‘One comes to the same outcome in terms of the success or otherwise of that claim. Therefore, whilst the ET appear to have fallen into error, it made no difference to the outcome.’

Considering Moon’s third ground of appeal in relation to the unfair dismissal, the judgment in R Moon v Slater & Gordon UK Ltd said the tribunal had ‘not been guilty of any error of law in the way in which they examined the reason for dismissal’.

It added that the tribunal’s decision was ‘more than adequately explained and reasoned’.

A cross-appeal by the firm was ‘technically’ successful in two of its grounds. 

Dismissing Moon’s appeal and allowing Slater & Gordon’s cross appeal, the judge said no consequential order would follow ‘given the ultimate outcome of the cross-appeal…which is essentially to provide additional bases on which the ET should have rejected [Moon’s] unlawful deduction claims’.

Rob Moon appeared in person and Roger Quickfall, instructed by Eversheds Sutherland, appeared for Slater & Gordon