Claimant v Woodside Calder Ltd T/a A Rizwan — 2018

Mr MS Anwar brought a claim of unauthorised deduction from wages arising from his training contract with Woodside Calder Ltd t/a Anderson Rizwan. The contract, dated 23 May 2016 and starting on 11 January 2016, provided for £20,000 gross in the first year and £33,000 gross in the second year, with monthly net payments of £1,397 in year one and £2,149 in year two. The claimant sought £29,404.11. The respondent disputed the salary position for the second year but accepted that unpaid wages were due.

The tribunal accepted the claimant as honest and straightforward and found the respondent's director, Rizwan Liaquat, to be inconsistent and unreliable. It found that no monthly payments were made between January and June 2016, which would have amounted to unlawful deductions, but also found that the claimant did not raise the issue at the time. It further found that the claimant received the monthly payments due from July to December 2016, so there were no unlawful deductions in that period.

For the later period, the tribunal found that from January 2017 the claimant was entitled to a higher monthly rate but did not receive it, and that this constituted a further series of deductions. Applying the three-month limit in section 23 ERA 1996, the tribunal held that there was a gap of more than three months between the first series and the later series, so it lacked jurisdiction to consider the January to June 2016 deductions. It therefore issued judgment for the respondent to pay £10,399.84 in respect of the later series, which the respondent accepted as due.