In person For the v Mr. Akobola, director — 2020

The claimant, a junior accountant engaged by the respondent between 13 August 2018 and 12 November 2018, brought a claim for arrears of pay and sought repayment of the £750 training fee. The tribunal held that the written agreement was a training agreement under which the claimant would complete an 8-week training period before a separate work contract was issued. It rejected the claimant's case that the anticipated £27,000 annual salary had formed the pay term for the work she carried out, because that employment phase never came into existence.

The tribunal found, however, that an unwritten contract arose in September 2018 for paid work outside the training commitment. It relied on the respondent's emails and texts acknowledging that payment was due, including messages about a pay advance and a November pay cycle, and on the absence of any denial at the time that wages were owed. It accepted that the respondent had provided the claimant with client work on three files and that the respondent benefited from that work.

On the amount due, the tribunal accepted the claimant's evidence that she worked 90 hours in total, rather than 90 to 100 hours, and found that the appropriate rate was the national minimum wage of £7.83 per hour. It therefore awarded £704.70 for unpaid work. It also recorded that it had no general jurisdiction to award compensation for 'time wastage and stress'.

The claim for repayment of the £750 training fee failed. The tribunal found that the contract expressly made the training fee non-refundable, that the respondent had not failed to provide the training, and that the parties' breakdown arose from the claimant's insistence on paid work and the respondent's delay in payment.