Mrs E Pickering v Secret Garden Café Hull Ltd — 2025

Mrs E Pickering brought an ET1 against Secret Garden Cafe Hull Ltd on 18 March 2025. The respondent did not present a response by the due date of 5 June 2025. The tribunal therefore considered the papers under rule 22 of the Tribunal Rules of Procedure 2024 and was satisfied that it had enough material to issue judgment without a hearing.

The claimant had worked 20 hours a week in the respondent's cafe at £11.40 an hour, with occasional overtime, and was paid monthly in arrears. Her gross weekly pay was £228.20. The tribunal found that her employment ended in June 2024 without notice, and that she had not been paid for work done in May 2024 or for shifts worked in June up to the termination date.

For May 2024, the tribunal found that £1,186.90 gross was due and payable on 31 May 2024. For June 2024, it found that £643.50 gross was due for the shifts worked before termination and that payment should have been made on the date of termination or by 30 June 2024 at the latest. Because no payments were made and there was no contractual or statutory authority for the deductions, the unlawful deduction from wages claim succeeded in the gross sum of £1,830.40.

The tribunal also found that the claimant was entitled to one week's notice of termination but had received none. It accepted that damages for the notice claim had to be calculated on a net basis and, on the material before it, awarded £225 for breach of contract. The total amount due to the claimant was therefore £2,055.40.