J Lindsay S Currie Mehdiya Haider v Represented by Ms H Hiram, Consultant AR Limited — 2024

At a preliminary hearing on the first day of the final hearing, the claimant withdrew the complaints about pension contributions, statutory sick pay, and the section 44/100 detriment and constructive dismissal issues, and the claims against the first and second respondents were dismissed on withdrawal. The final hearing therefore concerned unlawful deductions from wages, holiday pay, and the written statement/itemised pay statement complaints against AR 28 Limited.

The tribunal found that during the contract both sides believed the claimant was self-employed, but after post-termination advice under the Vocational Training of General Dental Practice (Scotland) Regulations 2004 they agreed she was employed for the purposes of the proceedings. On the unlawful deduction claim, the tribunal treated the claimant's net profit share as wages under s.27 ERA 1996, rejected any illegality bar by applying Patel v Mirza 2016 UKSC 42, and accepted that the respondent could retain up to £2,457 under the retention clause. It found unpaid sums of £605, £2,666, £992 and £1,527, totalling £5,790 gross.

On holiday pay, the tribunal found the claimant had accrued 2.42 weeks of untaken leave and, using average weekly earnings of £1,092 based on total earnings of £24,576, awarded £2,643 gross under regulation 14 of the Working Time Regulations 1998. On the written statement and itemised pay statement complaints, the tribunal found non-compliance but declined to make monetary awards: it noted that the claimant had been given a written template contract, that she had access to payment information, and that exceptional circumstances meant an award would be unjust or inequitable or otherwise not just and equitable.