IN THE EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNAL (SCOTLAND) AT EDINBURGH Judgment of the Employment Tribunal in Case No: 4104879/2022 Heard at Edinburgh, on the Cloud Based Video Platform, on the th of November 2022 Employment Judge J G d’lnverno Ms Sophie Archer v ABR Training Limited — 2023

The tribunal heard an unauthorised deduction from wages complaint brought by Ms Sophie Archer against ABR Training Limited. The parties agreed the employment ran from 11 January 2022 to 15 June 2022, that the claimant’s hourly entitlement was National Minimum Wage, and that the gross wages claimed on the Schedule totalled £3,998.78. The main issues were whether the claimant had worked the disputed dates, and whether a £400 payment made by the respondent’s director on 31 March 2022 was a loan or a payment to account of wages.

The tribunal accepted the claimant’s evidence as generally truthful and sufficiently reliable, and rejected the respondent’s submission that her evidence should be disregarded because she had allegedly committed perjury by not listing all payments in her ET1. It found the respondent’s evidence vague and unreliable in relation to the disputed periods. On the balance of probabilities, the tribunal found that the claimant worked on all the dates in dispute, including 21 January, the February, March, April and 1 and 2 June dates set out in the Schedule, and so had entitlement to the salary due amounts shown against those dates.

On the £400 payment of 31 March 2022, the tribunal held that the claimant had not proved it was a personal loan. It found instead that the payment was made by Ms Mackinnon in her capacity as agent of the respondent and was a payment to account of wages, reducing the amount otherwise withheld. The tribunal therefore treated the £400 as credit in the wages calculation under sections 13 and 14 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.

The tribunal concluded that the claimant had an entitlement in law to gross wages of £3,998.78, that £1,212 had already been paid and credited, and that the respondent had accordingly made an unauthorised deduction from wages of £2,786.78 gross in the period 1 January to 15 June 2022. It ordered the respondent to pay that sum to the claimant. No separate award for interest or other heads of loss was recorded.