Mr J Rankin v Giant Professional Limited — 2023

The claimant, Mr J Rankin, brought a claim arising from an assignment he undertook between 10 October 2022 and 18 November 2022 through the respondent, Giant Professional Limited, to a customer end user. The tribunal recorded that he would normally expect to be paid at a basic rate based on the National Minimum Wage, with the possibility of a discretionary bonus depending on client payment and profitability.

The tribunal found that the claimant was contractually required to submit timesheets promptly, and at least weekly, and that those timesheets were the only record of the work done. It found that he did not fulfil that duty and only attempted to submit the timesheets after the customer had given two weeks' notice to terminate the assignment. By then he had been locked out of the customer’s system, and despite efforts by the claimant and the respondent the impasse was not resolved.

On that evidence, the tribunal held that the data log information received from WWT did not evidence the work done, the hours worked, or the dates worked, and that the timesheets submitted did not establish a right to be paid wages for the period in question. Applying section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, the tribunal said the issue was what wages were 'properly payable' and that this depended on the contract. Because the claimant had not provided verified timesheets signed by the customer within five business days, there was no basis for saying wages were properly payable for the assignment.

The tribunal therefore held that there had been no unlawful deduction from wages and dismissed the claim.