Mr. I Bouhzam v STR48 Limited (in creditors’ voluntary liquidation) — 2022

At the 6 February 2023 hearing before Employment Judge D Wright, the respondent's application for an adjournment was refused. The tribunal noted that no representative or witness attended for the respondent and no documentary evidence was provided, so it proceeded in the respondent's absence after applying the Presidential Guidance on adjournments and balancing efficiency against fairness.

The tribunal accepted the claimant's contract, which stated that his salary was £45,000 per year, made up of £23,000 house pay and £22,000 tronc. It rejected the respondent's contention that the tronc element was discretionary, because the contract expressly identified the salary breakdown and only the separate bonus clause was described as non-contractual and wholly discretionary. On that basis, the claimant was found entitled to the tronc element of pay for the period 27 April 2022 to 1 June 2022, producing an award of £2,115.35 gross.

For notice pay, the tribunal found that the claimant had been employed from 27 April 2022 until 1 June 2022 and was given notice on 31 May 2022, which amounted to one day's notice. Applying the contractual probation clause, the tribunal held that after the first month of employment the claimant was entitled to four weeks' notice. Four weeks at the contractual weekly rate of £865.38 came to £3,461.52, less one day's pay of £173.07, leaving £3,288.45 gross due. The tribunal also found that the claimant had accrued 2.8 days' annual leave and had taken none, so £484.60 gross was due for unpaid holiday pay.

The tribunal therefore ordered the respondent to pay a total of £5,888.40 gross, and to account to HMRC for any tax and national insurance before paying the balance to the claimant. It recorded that the unpaid sick pay issue was not before the tribunal because it was not included in the ET1, and no award was made on that point.