Claimant v Candiotti Vega v Clearlake Cleaning Ltd — 2023

Ms V Candiotti Vega worked as a cleaner for Clearlake Cleaning Ltd at Wigmore Hall from 3 October 2017. The tribunal found that she had limited English and often relied on Google Translate or her partner Cesar. It also recorded a final written warning from February 2020 and later pay disputes in February and March 2022 about unpaid wages, holiday pay, and a Christmas party payment.

The central dispute was what happened at the meeting on 17 March 2022. The claimant said she raised the unpaid wage issue and said she would use her union representative to recover the money, after which Mr Richard Jackson told her she was fired. The tribunal preferred the claimant's account, noted inconsistencies in the respondent's case, and concluded that the principal reason for dismissal was her assertion of the statutory right not to suffer unlawful deductions from wages. It therefore upheld the complaint under section 104(1)(b) ERA 1996.

In the alternative, the tribunal held that even if dismissal occurred by the 8.07am email, the respondent had not shown a fair conduct reason under section 98 ERA 1996. It was not credible that Mr Jackson genuinely believed the claimant had stolen the Wigmore Hall keys, there had been no proper investigation, and the respondent knew of her language difficulties. The tribunal also rejected contributory conduct on its main finding that she had already been dismissed before the keys issue arose, though it said that if that had not been so it would only have been minded to find 5% contribution. Remedy was not determined in this judgment, and a remedy hearing was listed for 27 April 2023.