C Abbott v Timber Garden Buildings Limited AT A HEARING — 2021

At the CVP hearing on 3 September 2021, the claimant did not attend. The tribunal recorded that he had been sent the wrong PIN, but he did not respond to telephone calls or to an email giving the correct joining details. By 2.30 pm, after the case was due to start at 2 pm, he had made no attempt to contact the tribunal, and the tribunal treated the claim as no longer actively pursued.

The tribunal said that, on the papers, the claim had little or no reasonable prospect of success in any event. It found that the claimant had been paid for all the hours he actually worked. Although there were no written terms for the later period of employment, the claimant had previously worked for the respondent, and both the earlier written contract and the later oral terms contained express clauses allowing variation in hours and lay-off if there was no work.

The tribunal further noted that it was not obvious that the normal weekly hours of 40 were guaranteed so as to entitle the claimant to be paid in full regardless of the hours actually worked. It also said that the variable payments had continued for around nine months apparently without protest, so there would seemingly have been a waiver of any breach of contract if one existed. The judgment added that the claim could only have been in time if it were brought as a breach of contract claim outstanding at the date of termination on 8 March 2021, rather than as a series of unauthorised deductions from wages up to January 2021.