Mr O Sanyaolu v Citytrust Investments Group Limited — 2024

The claimant was employed as a Senior Care Assistant from 28 February 2022 until 16 June 2022. He brought claims arising from dismissal, pay deductions, holiday pay, working time, and expense reimbursement. During the hearing he withdrew the automatic unfair dismissal claim under s103A ERA 1996 and the race and sex discrimination claims, and the tribunal recorded those, together with the remaining withdrawn WTR claims, as dismissed upon withdrawal.

The tribunal found that the claimant’s employment ended when the dismissal was communicated by WhatsApp at 11:47am on 16 June 2022. On the expenses dispute, it found that the claimant had signed contracts containing loan and deduction clauses, had been told about deductions on his payslips, and had accepted communications showing that flights were not included. It rejected the claim that the respondent had agreed to pay his flight from Nigeria or to reimburse the wider expense items raised in the breach of contract claim. It also rejected the later rent reimbursement claim because the payment was made after dismissal and to another legal entity, and it found the section 15 claim failed because the claimant’s message saying he would transfer the money amounted to written consent.

On the section 13 deductions claim, the tribunal found that the £334 accommodation security deposit should not have been deducted and that this item succeeded by consent. It also found that the £35 uniform deduction was well founded. The claims for £334 monthly rent, £10 shopping, £30 airport transfer, £65.60 bus fare and £15.95 shopping were dismissed. Holiday pay of £47.91 gross was agreed and payable by consent, and the total payable was £416.91 gross.

On working time, the tribunal found that regulation 21(c)(i) applied to the claimant’s home-care work, so the 11-hour daily rest entitlement in regulation 10 did not apply. It accepted that he was instead entitled to compensatory rest under regulation 24, but found no breach of regulation 24 on the facts.