Claimant v James Zimmer LLP — 2021

Peter Cayabyab worked for James Zimmer LLP as a back of house manager and resigned in January 2020. He brought claims said to total about £18,000 for unpaid overtime, unpaid accrued annual leave and unpaid travel expenses. The tribunal heard evidence from the claimant and Mr Zimmer, but there were no witness statements or hearing bundle, only limited documents sent shortly before the hearing.

On the overtime claim, the tribunal found that the parties had discussed the terms of employment at the start of the job but had not discussed payment for overtime. It found the respondent's practice was to allow time off in lieu rather than pay overtime at an hourly rate, and the claimant accepted that he had taken time off and been paid his basic salary for those absences. The tribunal held there was no express or implied contractual term requiring overtime to be paid, and in any event the claimant had not proved on the balance of probabilities the hours he said he had worked.

On holiday pay, the tribunal applied the Working Time Regulations 1998 and NHS Leeds v Larner. It held that the claimant was only entitled to be paid on termination for statutory leave accrued in the year in which his employment ended, namely January 2020, and there was no entitlement to payment for leave from earlier years. The tribunal found there was no sickness-related reason preventing him from taking leave, so there was no basis for carrying leave forward year by year. It also found that the amount already paid to him for accrued holiday exceeded the statutory leave that had accrued in January 2020.

On travel expenses, the claimant said he had travelled 620 miles at 49p per mile, but the tribunal accepted only the trips he could identify, which totalled 348 miles at most. Mr Zimmer said the claimant had been paid £250 for general expenses in January and had retained that payment. The tribunal found that, on the highest mileage figure proved, the expenses would have been £170.52, which was less than the £250 float retained, so no further sum was due. All three claims were dismissed and no award was made.