Part 7: Sunday Working Schedule 5: Sunday working Employment Act 2002: minimum award at Employment Tribunal
Paragraph 12 contains amendments to section 38 of the Employment Act 2002. These provide for a minimum award at Employment Tribunal where an employer has failed to provide a shop worker with an explanatory notice informing them of their opt-out rights, as required by new section 41B or 41C of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
	This minimum award is two weeks' pay. In cases where the Tribunal considers it just and equitable in all the circumstances, the award may be increased to four weeks' pay. This is the same minimum award that already applies in the case of an employer who has failed to provide a written statement of particulars of employment under section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
	The minimum award will be paid to a shop worker who successfully brings certain other claims in the Employment Tribunal (specifically, those listed in Schedule 5 to the Employment Act 2002): either in addition to the award that the claimant would otherwise have received, or on its own if there would otherwise have been no award. The award would be made if the employer had failed to comply with section 41B or 41C of the Employment Rights Act 1996 at the time the other tribunal proceedings were begun. In exceptional circumstances the Tribunal could decide not to pay the minimum award if to do so would be unjust or inequitable.
	There is no separate right to bring a claim at Employment Tribunal simply because the employer has failed to provide an explanatory notice: rather, the failure to provide an explanatory notice would be established in the course of investigating another employment dispute brought to the Tribunal by the shop worker.