(1) Mr B Yefet (2) Mr L Jacob (3) Mr J Pinhas v Digimedia Solutions Ltd (In creditors’ voluntary liquidation) and 1 other — 2023

The tribunal declared that the three claimants were employees of the First Respondent. The Second Respondent confirmed at the hearing that it had decided on 5 October 2023 that the claimants were employees, so the main issue in the case was conceded and the claimants' claims for payments from the National Insurance Fund, including notice pay, holiday arrears and redundancy payments, had been accepted and paid recently.

The tribunal accepted the claimants' evidence that deductions had been made from those payments in respect of director loan accounts of £4,359 for each claimant. Mr Yefet and Mr Jacob had already repaid those loans in full to the liquidator, so the Second Respondent was ordered to recalculate their claims without those deductions and pay the sums due directly to them. Mr Pinhas had not repaid his loan, so the tribunal directed that the recalculated sum should be paid to the liquidator or, if preferred, to Mr Pinhas so that he could pass it to the liquidator.

The tribunal found that the Second Respondent should have made a prompt formal concession by the second week of October and informed the tribunal that the hearing was no longer necessary. It described the failure to do so as unreasonable conduct of the case and ordered preparation time compensation of £258 for Mr Jacob and £172 each for Mr Yefet and Mr Pinhas, calculated at £43 per hour.