Mr M Tuduran v Complete Joinery (Midlands) Ltd Heard via CVP in the Midlands (East) Region — 2021

The claimant, Mr M Tuduran, worked as a joiner for the respondent in February 2021. The tribunal preferred his evidence to that of Ms Kerry and found that the arrangement arose from the job advert and the telephone call on 12 February 2021, in which Mr Shaun Kerry described the work as full-time, paid at £130 a day, at the Top Hat factory in Derby, with set hours and a week in hand. The tribunal found there was a contract with express terms as to pay, hours, place of work and job title, and that the claimant was required to provide his services personally. It concluded that he was an employee, or alternatively a limb (b) worker.

The tribunal found that the claimant worked for the respondent for ten working days over a two-week period and was entitled to be paid £130 for each day, totalling £1,300. It rejected the respondent's case that he had only worked one day or that non-payment was justified by missing timesheets. The tribunal accepted the claimant's evidence that he had not been told at induction that he needed to complete timesheets in order to be paid, and it did not accept that the later memo about timesheets showed that he had been given that instruction. It also found there was no evidence that the claimant had been told the client was unhappy with his work.

By failing to pay the £1,300 properly due, the respondent made an unlawful deduction from wages. The tribunal also found that the respondent had failed to provide a written statement of employment particulars contrary to section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. Because the unlawful deduction claim succeeded, the tribunal made an additional award under section 38 of the Employment Act 2002 of two weeks' pay, again £1,300, because the claimant had only worked for two weeks. The total award was £2,600.