Mr R Dos Santos (1) Mrs M Dos Santos (2) v 808 Leisure Limited — 2019

At the start of the hearing the tribunal refused the claimants' application to amend their claims to add complaints about holiday accrued during 2018 but not taken. It applied Selkent Bus Company Limited v Moore and the Presidential Guidance on Case Management, concluding that the proposed matters were new claims, were outside time, and could have been presented when the original claim forms were issued in February 2019.

The respondent conceded liability for wages for 1 January to 8 January 2019 and for pay in lieu of untaken holiday for the same week. The tribunal therefore ordered agreed payments of £646.15 to Mr R Dos Santos and £600.00 to Mrs M Dos Santos for wages, together with £69.58 and £64.61 respectively for holiday pay.

On the contested issues, the tribunal accepted Mr R Dos Santos's evidence and supporting documents that his employment began on 1 June 2018, not 1 August 2018. It rejected the respondent's case that he had merely been volunteering to help with renovations, relied in part on the Statement of Main Terms referring to 1 June 2018, the work records produced, and the £1,500 payment on 2 July 2018 described in the bank statement as wages. It held that wages for June and July 2018 had not been paid, amounting to an unauthorised deduction, and the parties later agreed the sum payable at £3,166.66.

The tribunal also found that neither claimant had been given clear and unambiguous 8 weeks' notice of termination on 31 October 2018. It considered the meeting notes, the WhatsApp messages, the letters dated 31 October 2018, and the January 2019 correspondence, but held that the respondent had not discharged the burden of proof. It applied the principle that notice to terminate must be clearly communicated and construed strictly against the employer, and on that basis the breach of contract claims succeeded, with agreed awards of £3,449.69 to Mr Dos Santos and £3,240.57 to Mrs Dos Santos.