Mrs M Ferguson v Tuck Inn Café UK Ltd — 2020

Mrs M Ferguson worked as a counter assistant at Tuck Inn Café in Doncaster from around 2003 on fixed shifts amounting to 21.5 hours per week. The tribunal found that she was paid in cash, had never been given a written contract, statement of particulars, or payslips, and that the Respondent had failed to submit her pay details to HMRC for a period before February 2020. When the café closed under lockdown, the Claimant understood she would be furloughed, but no written furlough agreement or other written variation to her pay was produced.

The tribunal held that the Claimant was not paid between 23 March 2020 and 26 August 2020. It rejected any suggestion that the Respondent had a statutory entitlement to withhold pay, and found there was no written contractual term or written agreement authorising the deduction. The Claimant's expectation that she would receive 80% under the CJRS did not amount to an agreement, and the tribunal noted that the CJRS issue was a matter between the Respondent and HMRC rather than a justification for not paying wages. The Claimant's claim for unauthorised deductions from wages therefore succeeded.

On remedy, the tribunal calculated the unpaid wages at £4,158.14, broken down by week and by the National Minimum/National Living Wage rates applicable during the period. It then made a separate uplift under section 38 of the Employment Act 2002 because the Respondent had failed to provide written initial particulars of employment. The tribunal found there were no circumstances making an award unjust or inequitable and uplifted the award by the higher amount of 4 weeks' pay, assessed at £749.92, producing a total award of £4,908.06.