Miss A Bow v Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and 1 other — 2021

The claimant, formerly the sole director and an employee of Rug Rescue Ltd (in creditors' voluntary liquidation), brought claims against the Secretary of State under Parts 9 and 12 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 in respect of redundancy pay, notice pay, holiday pay and arrears of pay following the company's insolvency. The Redundancy Payments Service had paid her £4,715.80 on 20 September 2023 calculated on a weekly wage of £119.23, derived from her declared P60 income of £6,200 for the tax year to 5 April 2022. The claimant contended that her weekly pay should instead have been £380, based on a 40-hour week at the National Minimum Wage of £9.50 per hour.

The tribunal found that, given the limited documentation available, R1 had used the correct calculation of a week's pay by dividing the declared P60 figure by 52, which was broadly consistent with the two preceding tax years (£8,628 to 5 April 2020 and £4,107.47 to 5 April 2021). Taking into account the claimant's evidence, including a document signed by her late father in May 2020 referring to reduced wages being repaid in future, the judge was not persuaded on the balance of probabilities that additional hours at the NMW rate had in fact been worked or were owed: the claimant was the sole director and decision maker (and latterly sole shareholder), any sums owed were not recorded as a debt in the company's accounts, and the contemporaneous time sheets and spreadsheet she said she had kept were not produced.

The claimant withdrew the arrears of pay complaint at the hearing, having accepted she had been paid the correct amount. All four complaints were therefore dismissed as not well founded. No remedy was awarded by the tribunal.