Miss E Hudson v 4Thewkend Limited — 2023

Miss E Hudson brought a claim for unauthorised deduction of wages against 4Thewkend Limited. The tribunal record says she had been employed as a bartender from 3 March 2023 to 12 May 2023 and was paid £10.20 an hour. She said her former employer had failed to pay her for the final four weeks of her employment.

The tribunal noted that the claim was first served at the address given on the ET1, which was not the respondent’s registered office, and that no response was returned. After a preliminary hearing on 27 September 2023, Employment Judge O’Dempsey amended the respondent’s name and directed re-service at the registered office. No ET3 was then returned either.

The tribunal proceeded under rule 21 of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013 and considered the documents supplied by the claimant, including wage slips and her letter of 12 October 2023 identifying deductions from pay on 5 July 2023 and 5 August 2023. On that material, the tribunal accepted that she had worked the hours claimed, that the sums were properly payable, that they had not been paid, and that there was no contractual or other authorisation for the deductions.

The tribunal found that in the last four weeks of employment she worked 73 hours without being paid for that work, and that she had also been underpaid by £89 in March and April. It held that the unpaid amounts formed a series of deductions and ordered the respondent to pay the claimant the gross sum of £833.60.