Mrs M Paraia v Eden Brook Home Care Limited — 2020

Mrs M Paraia worked for Eden Brook Home Care Limited from 11 March 2019 until her dismissal on 23 August 2019. The tribunal found that no second contract was issued after probation, so the original written contract remained in force and the notice period was one month. It also rejected the respondent's costs request arising from the postponed face-to-face hearing.

On the wages deduction claim, the tribunal held that only part of the final deduction was unlawful. It found that £100 remained outstanding on a car loan, £102 was properly deducted for personal use of the company credit card, and £474.10 could be deducted as an advance for training that had not been provided. The £500 said to be repayment of Mrs Worcester's personal loan could not be deducted from wages because the respondent and Mrs Worcester had separate legal identities, so that sum was ordered to be repaid.

On holiday pay, the tribunal found that the claimant had 5 days of untaken leave at the end of employment and was entitled to £525, calculated at £105 net per day. It accepted that the respondent had not produced holiday records and preferred the claimant's evidence that she had postponed the August leave she had planned to take. The separate breach of contract claim for unpaid overtime failed because, although the tribunal accepted that she worked the hours shown on the people planner screenshots, it found there was no additional monetary entitlement and that the arrangement was covered by salary and any time off in lieu.

The wrongful dismissal claim succeeded. The respondent said the dismissal was for gross misconduct connected with missed calls and a lack of cover for the weekend, but the tribunal was not satisfied that any repudiatory breach had actually occurred. It found that the claimant was dismissed before she had the chance to address the cover issue, so the dismissal was in breach of contract and she was entitled to one month's pay in lieu of notice, assessed at £2,265.