Mr D Mockevicius v Cloudshift Group Ltd — 2019

Mr D Mockevicius was employed by Cloudshift Group Ltd as a Salesforce consultant from 11 June 2018 until 18 September 2018, and he said he was dismissed by a letter received on 19 September 2018. The tribunal found that his contract provided for a three-month probation period with one week’s notice during probation and one month’s notice after successful completion, with no contractual provision allowing an extension of probation. It found that he had not been notified during the three months that he had failed probation, so he had been employed for three months plus one week and was entitled to one month’s notice or pay in lieu.

On pay, the tribunal accepted the claimant’s certificates showing that he passed exams on 22 June, 5 August and 27 August 2018. It found that from 27 August 2018 his salary rose from £45,000 to £47,500 per annum. The claimant had been underpaid £150.70 for the period from 27 August to 18 September 2018, and the respondent had deducted £389.03 from his September wages for training costs. Construing clause 25, the tribunal held that the training-cost deduction only applied if the claimant voluntarily left employment before 12 months had passed, so the deduction was not authorised under section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.

The tribunal therefore found unlawful deductions from wages totalling £539.73 and ordered payment of that sum. It also found that the claimant was entitled to one month’s notice pay at the higher salary rate, calculated as £2,986 net, less the one week’s notice pay of £656 already paid, leaving £2,330 due under the Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (England and Wales) Order. The unfair dismissal claim was dismissed because the tribunal said it was not well-founded and that it had no jurisdiction to consider it.