Sandra Rivera Uzuriaga v Bayleaf Faclities Management Ltd — 2022

Sandra Rivera Uzuriaga had worked as a cleaner at the Chanel store in Covent Garden since 2011 and transferred to the respondent in February 2017. Her contract provided for a minimum of 10 hours per week, variable according to the needs of the business. After the pandemic interruption and the store's reopening, Chanel reduced the cleaning requirement to four days a week, and the respondent told the claimant on 22 June 2020 that she would only need to work Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The tribunal found that the contract did not give the respondent a power to reduce her hours down from 10 to 6 in response to business needs. It accepted that the claimant was told about a possible alternative job but found she was not given the specific details needed to accept it, and that the respondent's reliance on alternative work did not resolve the case. It also found that the claimant continued to seek her contractual 10 hours and never agreed to the reduction.

Applying the affirmation authorities it had cited, including Malik v Cenkos Securities, the tribunal held that the claimant did not affirm the unilateral variation by continuing to work during the pandemic. The correspondence after September and November 2020 showed that the matter remained disputed, and the tribunal found that from then on the respondent would have been aware that she was working under protest. It therefore upheld the claim for unlawful deductions from wages.

On holiday pay, the tribunal held that the claimant had taken annual leave but had not been paid for it. Relying on Smith v Pimlico Plumbers and s.27(1) ERA 1996, it found that 31 days of leave were unpaid, comprising 11 days in 2021 and 20 days in 2022. Using the agreed daily rate of £21.10, it awarded £654.10 for holiday pay. The tribunal's remedy calculation was £5,992.40 for unpaid wages plus £654.10 for unpaid holiday pay, making a total award of £6,646.50.