Mr Mathew Allcock v She Beauty Clinics Ltd — 2021

Mr Mathew Allcock brought claims for unlawful deduction from wages and holiday pay against She Beauty Clinics Ltd. The tribunal amended the respondent’s name to the limited company. The respondent did not attend or file a response, and Employment Judge Garnon sat alone at Newcastle on 26 November 2021.

On the wages claim, the tribunal accepted that the claimant’s contract, although poorly drafted, included an implied term that he would be paid £10 for each customer he signed up to the scheme and a further £10 when they attended their first appointment. The judge referred to Agarwal v Cardiff University and the officious by-stander approach in implying that term. The tribunal also treated pay during the notice period on garden leave as wages, referring to Delaney v Staples.

On that basis, the tribunal found a total wages shortfall of £1,193.44. This comprised £442.31 for unpaid garden leave, £391.13 for an underpayment in June, and £360 commission. The tribunal noted that the claimant agreed he was not owed expenses, and it described some of the payslip entries as confusing because expense advances were mixed with wage items.

For holiday pay, the tribunal found that the claimant started work on 1 May 2021, had annual leave entitlement of 5.6 weeks, and that 97 days of the leave year had expired when employment ended on 5 August 2021. It calculated entitlement to 7.44 days’ leave up to termination, found that one day had been taken, and awarded £569.68 for 6.44 untaken days at £88.46 per day under regulation 14 of the Working Time Regulations 1998. The judgment records both claims as well founded and directs payment gross of tax and National Insurance.