Firm of Robert Andrew v Represented by:10 Mr S Andrew - Director The Scottish Ministers — 2022

The appeal concerned an enforcement notice served on the Firm of Robert Andrew in respect of farm worker Stuart John Wallace Brown. The tribunal heard evidence from Mr and Mrs Andrew, Mr Brown and the respondent's officers, and found that the information given to the inspector and to the tribunal was inconsistent on both sides. It accepted that there were breaches of the Agricultural Wages (Scotland) Orders and the National Minimum Wage Act 1998, so an inspector who knew the facts would still have had reason to serve a notice.

The tribunal rejected the challenge to the notice on the basis that no sum was due. It found that there were no timesheets and that payslips did not specify holiday pay, but it also found that the hours set out in the respondent's enforcement letter were not based on the evidence from either side and could not be treated as accurate. It accepted that purchases such as straw and a padlock were private sale and purchase arrangements deducted from wages by agreement, and that money deducted for council arrears could be offset.

On holiday entitlement, the tribunal accepted that Mr Brown worked as a 6-day worker until June 2020 and as a 5-day worker thereafter. It held that he was entitled to payment for untaken holiday on termination and calculated £1,375 for holiday pay, including £420 for 7 days outstanding at termination. It also found that, although Mr Brown worked one of the two special holidays each year from 2016 to 2019 and took time off immediately afterwards, he had not been paid the correct special holiday rate, so it awarded a further £520. The correct amount payable under the notice was therefore £1,895, and the enforcement notice was rectified to that figure.