Mr Ravi Karimi v Orcan Intelligence Limited — 2023

Mr Karimi worked for Orcan Intelligence Limited for about six months and left on 29 November 2022. The dispute concerned outstanding commission of £11,500 gross and, separately, a claim for accrued but unpaid annual leave. After a meeting on 4 November 2022, Mr Bouvier emailed on 7 November 2022 confirming that commission would be paid if Mr Karimi did not discuss the conversation negatively with staff or anyone else; the tribunal found that this email formed a variation of the employment contract.

The tribunal heard evidence that after Mr Karimi’s departure information circulated in the recruitment market suggesting Orcan had financial difficulties. It found, on the balance of probabilities, that the information came from Mr Karimi and that this was a clear breach of the 7 November agreement, even if it was inadvertent. The tribunal also found that Mr Karimi had spoken to Mr Mackie, who then circulated the information and approached other staff about leaving.

On that basis, the tribunal held that there was no breach of contract by Orcan and no unlawful deduction from wages, because the amount properly due to Mr Karimi had been determined by the later agreement. The unlawful deduction claim was dismissed. The separate annual leave claim had been paid by the respondent and was also dismissed. No monetary award was made.