Mr D Palethorpe v Trossachs Pie & Pastry Company Ltd — 2023

Mr D Palethorpe started work for Trossachs Pie & Pastry Company Ltd on 5 December 2022 as a bakery production operative on £11 an hour. The written contract provided for normal hours of 7am to 5pm Monday to Friday, a holiday year from 1 April to 31 March, and clause 4.4 dealing with employees leaving without notice. On 17 January 2023 a dispute arose when Mr Stewart asked him to paint a bakery floor; the claimant said he raised concerns about PPE, paint and clothing and was told, three times, that if he did not do the paint work there was no more work for him.

The tribunal preferred the claimant's account and found that Mr Stewart's words were words of dismissal. It held that Mr Palethorpe was dismissed on 17 January 2023 and without notice, so the breach of contract claim for notice pay succeeded. The tribunal awarded £495, being one week's wages, for that claim.

On wages, the tribunal accepted the claimant's notebook records of his start and finish times and found that he worked 222.25 hours in total. On that basis he was entitled to £2,444.75 gross, had been paid £1,830.40 gross, and had suffered a £614.35 gross unlawful deduction from wages. It also held that clause 4.4 did not authorise a deduction from wages because it did not expressly and unambiguously permit one.

On holiday pay, the tribunal was not persuaded that the four business-closure days on 26 and 27 December 2022 and 2 and 3 January 2023 were holidays, because the contract did not designate them as such and there was no clear notice. It found that the claimant had taken no paid holidays during employment and awarded pay in lieu for 3.5 days, calculated under regulation 14 of the Working Time Regulations at £346.50 gross.