In Person For the v Mr P Pascoe - Director — 2020

The claimant worked for the respondent as a cleaner at premises operated by True Commerce in Coventry. The parties agreed that he was employed from 8 January 2020 to 21 February 2020, that his contractual hours were Monday to Friday from 7 am to 9 am, and that he was to be paid the minimum wage of £8.21 per hour. On that basis, the claimant said he had worked 33 days and was owed £541.86. It was also agreed that he had not been paid any sums for that work.

The respondent initially accepted that £402.29 was due and disputed the balance, relying on two matters: first, that on 31 January the claimant could not unlock the door and so should not be paid for two hours; and second, that from 3 February Mr Pascoe worked jointly with the claimant because of complaints about the quality of the cleaning, so that the claimant only did half the cleaning and 15 hours should be deducted. During the hearing, Mr Pascoe accepted that the 31 January issue was not the claimant’s fault and that the claimant had been present during his contracted working hours, so those two hours were payable. That left £418.71 undisputed and £123.15 disputed.

The tribunal identified the issue as whether there had been a variation of the oral contract from 3 February 2020 so that the claimant was only entitled to one hour per day rather than two. The tribunal held that any variation needed to be clear and certain, especially because it would halve the claimant’s pay. It accepted that Mr Pascoe had received a complaint from the client and had come in to assist the claimant from 3 February, but it was not satisfied that he had made it clear to the claimant that his contract was being varied.

The tribunal found that the claimant was entitled to assume that his existing terms and conditions continued because there was no clear and unequivocal communication of any change. It held that Mr Pascoe coming in to assist did not automatically mean the claimant’s hours had been reduced. The tribunal therefore found that the claimant remained entitled to payment for two hours per day and awarded the full £541.86 claimed.