Mr Cristian Paul Iriarte Valdivia v Italian Catering Concept Ltd T/A Don Giovanni — 2022

The respondent did not present a valid response and did not attend the hearing, so Tribunal Judge Holt proceeded under rule 21 of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013. The claimant gave evidence by CVP. The documents before the tribunal included the claimant's contract of employment, which described him as a head chef on £40,000 per year, equivalent to £769.23 gross per week, and the tribunal accepted that he was expected to work five days a week and was entitled to 28 days' paid holiday a year.

The tribunal accepted the claimant's evidence that he worked for the respondent from 24 May 2021 to 28 March 2022 and often worked extra hours. It found that he was not paid for his final week and that, over just over 10 months, he had taken only four days' holiday. On the tribunal's calculations, that left him owed 19 days' holiday, equivalent to 3.8 weeks at his net weekly pay of £559.23, plus one week's pay.

The tribunal calculated that the claimant's entitlement on that basis was £2,684.30 net, before deducting £513 the claimant said he had been paid after leaving. That reduced the calculated amount to £2,171.30. However, the tribunal noted that the claim form had been under-calculated and that the claimant did not seek to amend it at the hearing. It therefore awarded the sum claimed, £1,680 net, for unauthorised deductions from wages and unpaid holiday pay.