Ms E Murray v Safehands — 2019

Ms Murray brought claims for unfair dismissal, unlawful deductions from wages and breach of contract. The tribunal held that it did not have jurisdiction to determine unfair dismissal because she did not have sufficient continuity of service, so that claim was not before it for determination. The respondent had not filed a Response and did not attend the hearing, so the tribunal proceeded on the claimant's evidence and the documents she produced.

On the deduction from wages claim, the tribunal found that the respondent had deducted £1,005.45 from the claimant's wages for 'Excess mobile charges LLA'. It accepted the claimant's evidence that she had used the work phone for work-related purposes, including downloading rotas and using the company gmail account, and that the data use was in accordance with the respondent's expectation and for the company's benefit. The tribunal held that the deduction was not authorised under s.13 ERA 1996 and ordered repayment of the net sum.

On notice pay, the tribunal found that the claimant had been employed for four months and ten days and that, applying s.86 ERA 1996, she was entitled to one week's notice pay. Because there was no complete 12-week pay record, the tribunal calculated the weekly gross figure from the total earnings over the 19 weeks of employment and awarded £266.44 gross.

On holiday pay, the tribunal accepted that the payslips showed no holiday pay and that the claimant had a contractual entitlement to 28 days' holiday per year with a holiday year starting on 1 April. It found that her period of employment produced an accrued entitlement of 8.66 days and awarded the gross equivalent of that entitlement, £461.49. The claimant had sought £1,200 on the basis of 136 hours at £8.83 per hour, but the tribunal did not adopt that figure.