In Person For the v Jessica Marsh and Waseem Mohammed — 2020

The claimant brought a claim for unlawful deduction of wages. The first respondent said he was not her employee but worked for the second respondent. The tribunal joined the second respondent, but he did not respond and neither respondent attended the hearing. The tribunal heard the claimant’s evidence, read his ET1 and documents, and considered the first respondent’s ET3.

The tribunal found there was no dispute that the claimant was an employee of someone and that he had worked as claimed. The issue was which respondent employed him, and what hours and rate of pay applied. The tribunal accepted the claimant’s evidence that he had worked 81.75 rota hours and a further 10 additional hours, and that he expected to be paid at least the National Living Wage of £8.21 per hour.

Applying the authorities on employment status, including Ready Mix Concrete, Young & Woods, Autoclenz, White v Troutbeck and Crawford, the tribunal concluded that the first respondent was the claimant’s employer. The work was done at her premises using her facilities, she gave day-to-day instructions, she had promised payment for additional hours, and she told the claimant that his employment had ended. The tribunal found that the second respondent had engaged the claimant but was acting as the first respondent’s agent on the evidence before it.

On that basis, the tribunal held that the first respondent unlawfully failed to pay the claimant for the hours worked. Multiplying 91.75 hours by £8.21 per hour produced £753.27, and the tribunal ordered the first respondent to pay that sum gross to the claimant.