Ms. E Hodgetts (of Counsel) For the v Mr. K Farazad (CEO) — 2020

The claimant brought claims for unauthorised deduction from wages in relation to salary for 13 September 2019 to 7 November 2019, and breach of contract in relation to bonus and expenses. The respondent denied liability and counterclaimed for sums said to have been paid for the claimant's COS and CFA exam. It also advanced a non-compete covenant claim, which the tribunal struck out for lack of jurisdiction under the Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (England and Wales) Order 1994.

The tribunal accepted the claimant's evidence that the June Contract was genuine and had been sent to her by the respondent for signature in June 2018, later returned to her signed by Mr Farazad on 6 November 2018. It rejected Mr Farazad's case that the June Contract was forged, relying on contemporaneous documents including text messages, salary records, an email referring to probation, metadata for the June Contract, the certificate of employment, and work emails identifying the claimant by the title in that contract. The tribunal found that the claimant commenced employment on 13 August 2018, worked full time from 18 August 2018 under the June Contract, and that the later November Contract did not replace or vary the earlier contract because it was effectively a sham and the claimant had signed it only for visa-processing purposes on the respondent's assurance that her employment terms would remain unchanged.

On remedy, the respondent accepted liability for the unpaid salary and the tribunal declared an unlawful deduction from wages and ordered £5,000 gross, with tax and NI to be accounted for. The respondent also accepted liability for unpaid expenses of £190.52, which the tribunal ordered to be paid as damages. The tribunal further found that the claimant was entitled to the guaranteed bonus of £20,000, that there was no contractual term requiring any minimum period of service before that bonus became payable, and that in any event the claimant had completed one year of service before dismissal. It therefore ordered £20,000 damages for breach of contract. The respondent's counterclaim for COS and CFA reimbursement failed because there was no contractual basis for it, and the tribunal recorded that the respondent had not paid the CFA exam cost.