Miss E Andraous v The Nail and Beauty Zone Limited — 2024

Miss E Andraous was employed by The Nail and Beauty Zone Ltd as a Spa Therapist from 7 March 2023 to 13 September 2023. Her contract provided hourly rates of £11, £10 for non-booked work, and £12 for booked treatment work, with separate provisions for holiday, training, pensions, and a contractual variation clause. The tribunal found that the £12 treatment rate was an absolute contractual entitlement and not a discretionary bonus or commission, and that there was no evidence the claimant was given written notice of a contractual variation removing that rate from 1 July 2023.

On the pay claim, the tribunal accepted the respondent's Zenoti records as accurately capturing the claimant's service hours and rejected the claimant's challenge to those figures. It found underpayments in July 2023, August 2023, and September 2023. July was underpaid because the respondent had unilaterally changed the pay structure mid-period; August was underpaid because the claimant was still entitled to some £12 booked-rate pay and paid annual leave, despite the respondent's commission payment; and September was underpaid because the respondent was not entitled to deduct 35 hours of internal training pay under the contract's training-cost clause. The total unlawful deduction from wages was £606.37 gross, made up of £54.64 for July, £107.30 for August, and £444.43 for September.

The holiday pay complaint failed because, applying the Working Time Regulations 1998 and the claimant's contractual accrual terms, the tribunal found that by termination on 13 September 2023 she had no accrued but untaken leave remaining. It found that she had taken 14 days paid annual leave during the leave year and had therefore been paid for the leave due. The breach of contract claim succeeded in principle because the pension contributions were not paid into the scheme on a timely basis, but the tribunal found the contributions were later paid in and no loss was shown, so no damages were awarded.