Mr Mahbub Khan v I Luv Coffee Limited — 2024

The claimant, Mr Mahbub Khan, had been employed by I Luv Coffee Ltd from 1 May 2014 as a Customer Service Operator and resigned on 18 August 2023. The respondent did not present a response and the tribunal proceeded in its absence on the basis of the claimant's witness statement and exhibits. The tribunal found that, apart from a payment of £890 made on 7 August 2023, the claimant was not paid his wages for June, July and August 2023, and that this amounted to unauthorised deductions totalling £3,499 gross.

The tribunal also found that the claimant had experienced significant difficulties in receiving his wages for the last 10 months of his employment. It held that the failure to pay wages for June, July and August, save for the £890 payment, was a fundamental breach of the contract of employment and that the claimant resigned in consequence. On that basis, the tribunal found that he had been constructively unfairly dismissed.

In assessing remedy, the tribunal used the claimant's variable-hour earnings figures from HMRC records, calculating gross weekly pay at £433.39 and net weekly pay at £378.64. It accepted that the claimant had made some efforts to find work after resignation, but found that he could and should have obtained comparable employment by the time he started new work on 15 December 2023 at a food company. It therefore awarded four months' loss for the unfair dismissal claim.

The unfair dismissal award was £10,458.75, made up of a basic award of £3,900.51, a compensatory award of £6,058.24, and £500 for loss of statutory rights. The wages claim was awarded separately at £3,499 gross, producing a total monetary award of £13,957.75. The tribunal's recoupment note recorded a prescribed element of £6,058.24 for the period 18 August 2023 to 15 December 2023 and an excess over the prescribed element of £7,899.51.