Miss E Yousif v BSH Limited — 2021

Miss E Yousif was employed by BSH Ltd as a beauty therapist from August 2018. The tribunal found that she was employed to work 40 hours a week at £9 an hour, not on a zero-hours basis, because her payslips supported her evidence. It also found that bank holidays were not paid, that she was furloughed from April 2020 to April 2021, and that she left in June 2021 after taking outstanding holiday.

The tribunal held that alleged underpayments of wages in October 2018, November 2018 and November 2019 were outside the three-month limit in s.23 ERA 1996. It found it was reasonably practicable for those complaints to have been brought in time because payslips were available on request. It also rejected the allegation that furlough pay had been underpaid, preferring the respondent's evidence that furlough payments were processed through Sage and paid out as received.

The tribunal accepted that after furlough she was only paid for 30 hours in May 2021 rather than her usual 40 hours, and that she was owed outstanding holiday pay on termination, including one carried-over week. For the Working Time Regulations complaint, it found that unpaid bank holidays over the preceding two years were recoverable, applied Bear Scotland v Fulton Ltd and s.23(4A) ERA 1996, and awarded £2,403. The written judgment records an award of £900 gross for unlawful deduction from wages, although the reasons also set out figures of £90 for May 2021 short hours and £1,395 for accrued holiday pay, so the monetary arithmetic on that complaint is not internally consistent.