Claimant v Ramgarhia Gurdwara Sikh Temple Bradford and others — 2023

The tribunal found that Mr A Singh was employed as a Sikh priest at the Ramgarhia Gurdwara Sikh Temple Bradford from 15 August 2021 to 30 September 2022 under successive fixed-term contracts. It rejected his evidence that he worked 86 or 111 hours a week and preferred the respondents' witnesses and the contemporaneous documents, finding that his normal hours were 30 per week. The tribunal also found that he was paid fortnightly, that he could claim overtime when he worked more than his normal hours, and that his work fell within salaried hours work under the National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015.

On the unlawful deduction from wages claim, the tribunal accepted the respondents' calculations that there had been six pay reference periods in which the claimant was paid below the National Minimum Wage, with the last underpayment in the week ending 21 January 2022 and a total shortfall of £432. It nevertheless held that the claim presented on 22 December 2022 was out of time under section 23 ERA 1996, that the claimant had not shown it was not reasonably practicable to present the claim earlier, and that the tribunal therefore lacked jurisdiction to hear it. The judgment also records a concession and later withdrawal of a concession about accommodation deductions, but no separate award was made on that basis.

The holiday pay claim succeeded. The tribunal found that the claimant accrued about 6.4 weeks' holiday over his 59-week employment, had taken and been paid for three weeks, and was therefore entitled to 3.4 weeks of untaken leave on termination. Applying a net weekly pay figure of £271.16, it awarded £921.94. The claim that the respondents failed to provide a written statement of employment particulars failed because the tribunal found that the contract in force at the end of the employment contained the particulars required by section 1 ERA 1996.