EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS (SCOTLAND) Case No: 4103650/2023 Held by means of the Cloud Video Platform on October 2023 Employment Judge W A Meiklejohn Mrs Klara Kadar Highland Holiday Home Cleaning Ltd Highland Holiday Home Cleaning and Maintenance Mrs Monika Szabo Mr Sandor Szabo v ’s Husband — 2023

The tribunal first resolved respondent identity and time bar. It found that the correct respondent was Monika Szabo and Sandor Szabo trading as Highland Holiday Home Cleaning and Maintenance, operating as a partnership after the dissolution of the original company. It also held that the amended claim against them was not time-barred because the claimant had reasonably believed the original employer remained the correct respondent and had acted promptly once the issue was identified.

The claimant's separate underpayment claim had already been paid in the sum of £980.19 before the hearing and was no longer pursued. The tribunal instead determined the remaining wage claim relating to additional work at Nethy Bridge Community Centre. It found that the claimant had performed extra cleaning work from October 2020 until 21 March 2023, increasing from 1.75 extra hours per week to 2 hours per week from around 14 October 2022, and that she had not agreed to any deduction. Applying section 13 ERA 1996 and the two-year restriction in section 23(4A) ERA 1996, it awarded £1,228.41 as the net amount of unauthorised deductions.

On holiday pay, the tribunal found that the claimant's leave year ran from 1 July and that she was entitled to 28 days' annual leave. It found that she had taken one week's paid holiday in each of the leave years beginning 1 July 2021 and 1 July 2022, and no other holidays. It held that it had not been reasonably practicable for her to take some of the leave due in the leave year beginning 1 July 2020 because of coronavirus travel restrictions, so regulation 13(10) of the Working Time Regulations applied. Using the two-year limit and the rate of pay at termination, it calculated accrued but untaken holiday pay at £2,629.60.

The tribunal also found that the respondent had never provided a written statement of initial employment particulars. Under section 38 of the Employment Act 2002 it awarded the higher amount, because there had been no compliance with section 1(1) ERA 1996, and calculated that award as four weeks' pay at £346.50 per week, namely £1,386.00. No separate award of interest was recorded.