Ms Nellie Ariane v White Haus Hair and Beauty Ltd — 2023

The claimant worked for White Haus Hair and Beauty Ltd as a stylist/hairdresser from 1 April 2014 until she resigned by text on 18 August 2019. At the hearing the respondent conceded that she was a worker, and for the purposes of the claim also accepted employee status. The tribunal also recorded that the respondent had conceded she was entitled to 28 days annual leave per year and that no adequate pay statement had been provided, while a separate complaint about rest breaks under regulation 12 Working Time Regulations 1998 was not finally determined at this hearing and was directed to a show-cause process before a full panel.

On holiday pay, the tribunal accepted that the claimant had taken holiday during the employment but that she had not been paid for annual leave. Because she had not particularised which parts of her case related to taken leave, untaken leave, or any refusal of leave, the tribunal did not determine the claim by reference to the Working Time Regulations in detail. It instead allowed the alternative unlawful deduction claim and awarded 28 days' holiday pay at £60 per day, subject to the two-year limitation period, producing £3,360.

On national minimum wage, the tribunal found two pay periods. For the period from 2014 to September 2016, when the claimant was paid a daily rate, it accepted her evidence that the amounts paid into her account corresponded to the days actually worked, so no underpayment was proved for that period. From around September 2016 the pay arrangement changed to commission-based payments, and the tribunal held that the respondent had not produced records sufficient to displace the presumption of underpayment for that later period. However, it also found that the claimant had sometimes been overpaid, and those overpayments had to be credited. The net shortfall found on the evidence was £2,225.29.

The tribunal also found that the respondent had failed to provide adequate itemised pay statements under section 8 ERA 1996. It made a declaration on that point but no separate award because the claimant had already been awarded the value of the wage deductions. The total sum payable was £5,585.29, being £2,225.29 for the national minimum wage shortfall and £3,360 for holiday pay.