Mr Kevin William Haughton v The Hemp Room Cafe — 2022

Mr Kevin William Haughton brought a single claim for holiday pay following the termination of his employment on 31 December 2021. The respondent denied the claim and did not attend the hearing, having written to the tribunal that it had ceased trading on 13 August 2022 and was in the process of becoming insolvent. The Employment Judge heard evidence from the claimant and accepted the documents lodged in the bundle.

The tribunal found that the claimant had started work on or about 1 March 2020 on a zero-hours contract but that, despite being furloughed from late March 2020 to 30 September 2021, he continued to do work for the respondent. It accepted his evidence that he continued to carry out administrative tasks and online order processing, and that for the period up to 30 September 2021 he was in fact working 34.25 hours per week. The tribunal also accepted that in October 2021 he stopped making deliveries because of worsening mobility issues, but continued with administrative work thereafter.

On holiday entitlement, the tribunal accepted that the holiday year ran from 1 January to 31 December and that the claimant took no actual holiday during 2021, although he was paid for some holiday in December. It rejected the claimant's initial calculation as a direct contractual sum and instead carried out its own calculation, noting that the claim was not being made under the Working Time Regulations. Using the agreed hourly rate of £12 and the hours worked across the year, it calculated a weekly average pay of £326.48 and a holiday entitlement of 5.6 weeks, giving £1,828.29 for the year.

From that figure the tribunal deducted £332.25 already paid in respect of holiday pay, leaving £1,496.04 due. Judgment was therefore entered for the claimant in that sum in respect of annual leave accrued but untaken.