Lorna Allen v Unity Care Telford Ltd — 2024

The claimant applied for a Registered Domiciliary Care Manager role through a recruitment agency and attended interview on 7 September 2022. The tribunal preferred the first offer letter dated 10 September 2022, emailed on 11 September 2022, and found that the contract of employment was formed on 12 September 2022 on the terms in that letter: a start date of 1 December 2022, salary of £38,000, 25 days' holiday plus bank holidays, and conditions including a signed return of the offer, satisfactory basic DBS, two satisfactory references within one month of starting, and proof of right to work, qualifications, ID and NI number.

The tribunal did not accept the respondent's case that the offer was conditional on the claimant registering as a Registered Manager with CQC before 1 December 2022. It found that the references in the correspondence to CQC were to the respondent business's own accreditation or registration process, not to a personal registration requirement for the claimant. It also found that the claimant had met the offer conditions other than references, which were not due until after commencement, and that the respondent could not treat the DBS check as unsatisfactory simply because it had not checked the DBS updating service.

The breach of contract claim failed because the contract had not ended, so that claim could not be pursued on the facts found. The tribunal treated the non-payment of wages claim as a claim for unauthorised deductions from wages under section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. It found that any wages properly payable were limited to the notice period because the claimant never physically started work, and it calculated one week's gross wages at £780.

On holiday pay, the tribunal applied the Working Time Regulations 1998 and found that the claimant had accrued 0.7 days' holiday in the relevant week, worth £102 gross. It noted that the claimant had not put forward or evidenced consequential loss, and it made no further award beyond the wage and holiday pay deductions.