Mr C McEwan v Consilium Contracting Services Limited — 2023

Mr C McEwan brought a claim for arrears of pay and other payments against Consilium Contracting Services Limited. The Tribunal found that he had been employed as an electrician from 5 September 2022 to 1 February 2023 under a contract that described his job as electrician and set a basic salary of £33,113.60 per annum. Although he had previously been qualified to act as an approved electrician, he no longer held a valid ECS grade card when recruited, and the respondent only appointed workers as approved electricians if they could produce a valid card.

The claimant argued that he should have been paid at the higher approved electrician rate and also relied on the SJIB Agreement for additional on-call and callout payments, including £20 for the first callout and £10 for subsequent callouts. The Tribunal found that the SJIB Agreement did not apply to his employment because the respondent was not a member of it and the contract expressly stated that no collective agreement applied. The Tribunal held that the claimant was only entitled to the contractual electrician rate and to the respondent's own out-of-hours terms, namely £120 per week when on call and overtime at time and a half for actual callout work.

On the evidence, the Tribunal accepted the respondent's records, including rotas, payslips and Simpro records, and accepted the evidence of the respondent's witness as credible and reliable. It found that the claimant had been paid for all callouts shown on the respondent's records and that his own evidence and handwritten notes were not reliable or sufficiently particularised to prove any underpayment. The Tribunal also rejected his claim for payment for a WhatsApp message he answered while on holiday, because he was not on the callout rota and did not attend a callout. The claim was dismissed in full. The Tribunal noted that the claimant mentioned a separate £25 fuel expense, but held that this was not part of the original ET1 and so made no ruling on it.