Miss Ella Curtis v Suzie Dean (t/a Jeneveve) — 2019

Miss Ella Curtis was 16 when she worked a short trial period for Suzie Dean's prom-dress business, paid at £4.05 an hour. The tribunal found that she was not given a contract of employment or written particulars of employment, and that the arrangement was initially a Saturday job with extra Sunday work offered in January.

On the notice-pay issue, the tribunal accepted evidence that Miss Curtis had not attended work on four occasions between November 2017 and 19 January 2018, and had telephoned on the morning of each absence. When she called on 19 January 2018 to say she could not attend, Mrs Dean told her she would not be required to return. The tribunal held that this pattern of unreliability amounted to conduct entitling the respondent to dismiss without notice under s.86(5) ERA 1996, so the claim for unpaid notice pay failed.

The unlawful deduction claim succeeded because the respondent deducted £27.50 for a work T-shirt without any contractual entitlement to do so. The tribunal noted that the shirt was eventually returned 4 to 5 weeks later, but that did not create a right to deduct the cost in the absence of written terms. The tribunal also found a failure to provide written particulars under s.1 ERA 1996 and awarded two weeks' pay under s.38 Employment Act 2002, assessed at £48.60, producing a total award of £76.10.