Miss B Philips v The Halsetown Inn Ltd (in Liquidation) — 2020

Miss B Philips worked for The Halsetown Inn Ltd from 31 March to 18 October 2019 on variable hours. The Tribunal proceeded in the absence of both parties, taking the matter on the papers because the Claimant had explained her non-attendance and no one from the Respondent or the Liquidator intended to attend. The Respondent was in creditors' voluntary liquidation, and the Liquidator indicated there were insufficient funds to meet sums due above those recoverable through the Secretary of State.

The Tribunal accepted the Claimant's calculation that she had averaged 16.45 hours per week in the 12 weeks before the end of employment and had accrued 35.5 hours of holiday. Using an hourly rate of £8.50, the gross holiday pay due was £301.75. The Respondent had already paid £51 on 11 October and a further £35.83 on 4 November, leaving £214.92 unpaid.

The Respondent said in its ET3 that it had deducted an alleged outstanding bar bill of £197.10 from the final payment. The Tribunal did not have evidence to determine whether that sum was still owed or had been paid in cash, but it found that, even if the debt remained outstanding, the Respondent was not legally entitled to deduct it because there was no evidence of authorisation or prior written agreement. Applying Regulation 14 of the Working Time Regulations 1998, section 224 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, the Tribunal held that the failure to pay all holiday pay due amounted to an unauthorised deduction from wages.

The claim succeeded and the Respondent was ordered to pay £214.92 to the Claimant. The Tribunal noted that, because the Respondent was in liquidation, the Claimant could contact the Redundancy Payments Service and might be able to recover the sum from the Secretary of State.