Former beauty firm boss pockets more than £50k after tribunal rules she was unfairly sacked for taking working holidays

A glamorous Scottish entrepreneur has won over £50,000 in compensation after she was unfairly sacked for taking holidays to Bali and Australia while in charge of the company.

Hayley Harvey-Smith, who founded GlamCandy, in Edinburgh, came under fire over her month-long stay across the world as well as trips to Paris and high-end ski resort Val d’Isère in France.

The businesswoman, who earned up to £220,000 a year, could take leave ‘as and when she desired’ as she was director and she told a tribunal she worked while abroad.

But after the 40-year-old sold her shares in the beauty school she was criticised for the breaks and fired in a ‘sham’ redundancy.

The new owner, the firm’s former bookkeeper Mark Thompson, 50, argued that if she was a ‘true employee’ she would have been disciplined for ‘the manner in which she took annual leave or worked from abroad’.

However, an employment tribunal found that apart from the ski resort, all of the trips were working holidays and Mrs Harvey-Smith did not breach any employment rules.

Mrs Harvey-Smith has now won £51,293 in compensation after suing GlamCandy UK for unfair dismissal and accrued but unpaid holiday.

The tribunal, sitting in the capital, heard how she founded the company with her sister-in-law in 2011 before Mrs Harvey-Smith went on to have sole control over it.

Hayley Harvey-Smith founded and was in charge of beauty business GlamCandy before she was unfairly dismissed for taking too many holidays

Hayley Harvey-Smith has won more than £50,000 in compensation for unfair dismissal case after a tribunal ruled she had worked during most of her trips abroad

GlamCandy was described as a school which offers accredited courses across the UK in makeup artistry.

Mrs Harvey-Smith’s primary duties and responsibilities related to marketing and she was regarded at the ‘boss’ and ‘master’ of the business.

Among other roles, she helped develop the education centres, ran social media, and sourced items for the makeup kits.

It was heard Mrs Harvey-Smith – who had invested her own money into the business – was the ‘most senior’ person in the beauty business and in the absence of a board, did not report to anyone.

She was entitled to 25 days annual leave as per her contract but ultimately took time off ‘as and when she desired’ as she often put in extra hours.

On January 22 last year, she took a month long trip to Bali and Australia – but spent much of that time working.

In March she went to Val d’Isere and the following month to Paris.

After selling her shares in the business in June, she stepped down as director but continued to work as usual with the business.

But in December she was sent a ‘notice of redundancy’ centring around her time off but the tribunal said it set out a ‘false narrative’ and that a ‘genuine redundancy scenario did not exist’.

The redundancy and notice payments referred to in the letter were not paid to Mrs Harvey-Smith and her sacking was made ‘without any input or consultation’ from the entrepreneur.

Although she tried to appeal the decision, GlamCandy bosses did not organise a hearing and she ultimately lost her ‘right of appeal’.

She sued GlamCandy for unfair dismissal.

The tribunal accepted her holiday to Bali and Australia had been a ‘working trip rather than annual leave’ and accepted her evidence that she’d not taken time ‘in excess of her annual leave entitlement in 2023’.

Upholding her claims, employment Judge Eleanor Mannion said Mrs Harvey-Smith lost her job in a ‘sham redundancy’

‘There was no genuine redundancy situation, a redundancy consultation or process had not been followed and [Mrs Harvey-Smith] had not been fairly selected for redundancy,’ the judge said.

‘In the absence of a fair reason for dismissal, I find that [Mrs Harvey-Smith’s] dismissal on 4 December 2023 was unfair in law.’

Mrs Harvey-Smith is now involved with other businesses.

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