Mr M Colgate v Total Highways Maintenance Ltd — 2021

The respondent did not present a valid response in time and, after correspondence about the missing ET3 and a hearing-day request for postponement, the tribunal proceeded in the respondent's absence. The tribunal heard from Mr M Colgate and considered his terms of employment. It found that he was employed as a Gully Operator from 5 February 2018, that his contractual pay was £150 a day or £15 an hour, and that he worked five nights a week. Payments had been made without difficulty until September 2020, when the respondent started to pay him, and others, sporadically.

The tribunal accepted that Mr Colgate had not agreed any variation to his terms and conditions, that he remained entitled to pay even when work was not available, and that he was ready and available to work at all material times. It found that over a 27-day period he had either not been paid for work done or had a cancelled shift without payment, after he had raised the issue with managers and through ACAS. The tribunal therefore held that the respondent made unauthorised deductions from wages and ordered payment of £4,050 gross, recorded in the judgment as £4050,00.