Mr. Leonid Waliejew v Quest Employment — 2022

Mr. Leonid Waliejew worked briefly for Quest Employment as a Sortation Associate from 29 October 2021 to 1 November 2021. The tribunal found that he had replied to an advertisement referring to a £3,000 sign-on bonus, and that during recruitment he was told he would need to complete the respondent's background-check process before being assigned to the Amazon contract. Although the claimant believed a previous Amazon check was enough, the tribunal found that he understood the respondent's process requirement and did not attempt to complete the respondent's check before he started work.

On the pay issues, the tribunal found that £93.60 wages and £10.30 accrued holiday pay were due when the claimant's employment ended and that the respondent's failure to pay those sums at that time was an unlawful deduction from wages. The respondent later paid those sums on or about 3 December 2021, so no money remained outstanding by the time of the hearing.

The bonus claim was dismissed. The tribunal accepted that the respondent operated a hiring incentive scheme at the material time, but found that payment depended on conditions including completion of the onboarding/background-check process, being employed on day 45 to receive 50% of the incentive, and remaining employed on day 90 or 24 December 2021, whichever was sooner. It found that none of those conditions were met in the claimant's case, so there was no breach of contract and no unlawful deduction in relation to the £3,000 bonus. The tribunal also held that it had no jurisdiction to award injury to feelings for breach of contract or unlawful deductions from wages.