Mr Andrzej Seremak v All Renewable Energy Ltd — 2019

Mr Seremak worked for All Renewable Energy Ltd from 24 August 2018 until 25 January 2019 as a worker on the renovation of a house owned by Mr Jakubczyk. He was paid hourly at £10.50 and by monthly bank transfer. There was no written contract or payslips. The tribunal found that on 21 January 2019 there was a conversation in which the claimant was told his job would end on Friday 25 January 2019. The claimant had 28 days' holiday in a full year and took no holidays during the employment.

The notice pay claim was dismissed. The tribunal rejected the claimant's case that he had not been given proper notice and accepted the respondent's account of the January conversation as more likely. The unlawful deduction from wages claim was also dismissed because the claimant did not produce independent evidence of the hours worked or of any shortfall in pay, the respondent's underlying diaries had been destroyed, and the tribunal was not satisfied that the total paid on any occasion was less than the wages properly payable.

The holiday pay claim succeeded. The tribunal found that any suggestion of rolled-up holiday pay had not been made transparent or comprehensible: there was no contract, no payslips, and no written record showing that holiday pay was included in monthly payments. Referring to MPB Structures Ltd v Munro, Robinson-Steele v RD Retail Services Ltd and Lyddon v Englefield Brickwork Ltd, the tribunal held that holiday pay had not been paid on the face of it, or alternatively that any such arrangement would be void. Applying Regulation 14(3)(b) and Regulation 16 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 and section 222 ERA 1996, the tribunal used a broad-brush calculation and awarded £841.04 for 11.66 days' accrued but untaken holiday.