Erhan Karadag v Elide Venture Ltd — 2025

The claimant, Erhan Karadag, brought a complaint of unauthorised deduction from wages against Elide Venture Ltd, later amended to include holiday pay. He said he had been engaged as Chief Operating Officer at £2,500 per month from 28 June 2023 and resigned on 28 July 2023 over non-payment. The respondent, through Mr Mangon (the claimant's flatmate), said the claimant was only shadowing him to gain insight into entrepreneurship. The tribunal granted the respondent an extension of time to file its response and allowed the claimant's amendment to add a holiday pay claim.

On the preliminary issue of time limits, Employment Judge Andrew Jack found that the claim was presented on 1 December 2023, about four months after the alleged deduction at the end of July 2023, and that early conciliation began after the normal three-month time limit had expired, so s.207B ERA did not extend time. The judge found that the claimant had not established on the balance of probabilities that his perception of risk of aggression and retaliation from Mr Mangon made it not reasonably practicable to present the claim in time, noting that he had in fact lodged the claim on 1 December 2023 while still living with Mr Mangon. The tribunal therefore had no jurisdiction and the claim was dismissed.

Had jurisdiction existed, the judge would also have dismissed the substantive complaint. While accepting that the claimant performed tasks going beyond mere shadowing (including signing an NDA on the respondent's behalf), the judge considered the claimant's account of being offered a £2,500 per month COO role the day after starting a one-week minimum wage internship to be inherently implausible, found no documentary evidence of the alleged wage agreement, and was not satisfied that the £201 paid on 30 June 2023 was wages rather than partial repayment of a personal loan.