Mr Alby Webb v Apex K9 Services Limited — 2024

Mr Alby Webb presented a claim on 16 January 2023 for unpaid wages arising from work he said he carried out for Apex K9 Services Limited as a dog trainer from 19 September to 1 November 2022. The respondent did not attend the hearing on 15 November 2023. The tribunal made inquiries by telephone, was told first that Mr Bryan was in hospital, and then that he had a hospital appointment in Cambridge at 10:30am. No adjournment had been applied for, and the tribunal proceeded in the respondent’s absence.

The claimant gave evidence and produced documents including phone messages, bank statements and his contract of employment. He said the agreed rate was about £90 per day and that he should have been paid on the first of each month. The tribunal accepted his evidence, including a WhatsApp voice message from Mr Bryan on 7 November 2022 in which Mr Bryan said he owed £2,160 and would pay that sum on Monday. The claimant’s bank statements showed a payment of £570 from the respondent on 14 November 2022, which the claimant said was paid to tide him over.

On that evidence, the tribunal found that the claimant was still owed £1,590 and held that the respondent had made an unauthorised deduction from wages. Judgment was entered for the claimant in the sum of £1,590 net, and the tribunal recorded that the respondent was responsible for any tax or National Insurance due on that amount.

The tribunal did not determine the respondent’s contract claim concerning the claimant’s alleged post-termination restraint. It observed that, in any event, it did not have jurisdiction under Article 5 of the Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction Order 1994 to adjudicate a contract claim relating to a covenant in restraint of trade.