Mrs A Jarecka v Platter Yorkshire Ltd trading as Platter Yorkshire — 2021

Mrs A Jarecka worked as a chef for Platter Yorkshire Ltd trading as Platter Yorkshire from 10 September 2020 to 19 February 2021 at £9 per hour for 20 hours a week. The respondent did not present a response and did not attend the CVP hearing. The tribunal accepted the claimant's account in full and found that, after 4 January 2021, the parties agreed she would not attend work and would be placed on furlough at 80% of pay, although no furlough payments were in fact made.

The tribunal held that the respondent made unlawful deductions from wages for the seven weeks up to resignation. It found that the claimant was entitled to 80% of seven weeks' pay, calculated at £1,008.00, but she had to give credit for the £805.00 transfer she later received, leaving £203.00 due. It also found that the failure to pay wages in accordance with the agreed variation was a repudiatory breach of contract, so the claimant was entitled to one week's notice pay at her standard weekly rate of £180.00.

The tribunal further awarded £446.40 for accrued but untaken annual leave under regulation 14 of the Working Time Regulations 1998, on the basis that the claimant had accrued 2.48 weeks' leave by the termination date and had never taken any paid holiday. Under section 38 of the Employment Act 2002, it made a further award of two weeks' pay, £360.00, because the respondent had not provided a statement of particulars of employment.

The redundancy payment claim was dismissed because the claimant did not have the necessary two years' continuous service. The deduction from benefits claim was dismissed for want of jurisdiction because the tribunal said it had no power under Part II ERA 1996 to award missing benefits, which would need to be pursued with HMRC or DWP.