Mrs R Summerfield v Milcare Ltd — 2022

The claimant was employed by Milcare Ltd from 1 July 2021. The tribunal held that training completed between 24 and 27 June 2021 was undertaken before any contract of employment existed, so it was not work for which wages were payable. The 23 June shadowing time had already been paid and was not in dispute.

The tribunal found that the online Parkinson's disease training completed on 5 July 2021 was either mandatory training or was presented to the claimant as such. It accepted that the respondent paid employees for mandatory training, assessed the course at 10 hours, and held that the claimant had not been paid for that time. That gave rise to an unlawful deduction from wages, and the tribunal ordered the respondent to pay £100 gross.

The tribunal rejected any further unpaid wages claim for 7 and 9 July 2021. It held that travel time was not payable under the contract, that the claimant was not entitled to wages for the cancelled 5 July visit, and that the claimant had already been paid for the remaining client-facing time on those dates. It also considered the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 and regulation 34 of the National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015, and concluded that the amount already paid met the national minimum wage. The claimant's application for a preparation time order was dismissed under Rule 76.