(sitting alone) Ms A Gibula v Windparkservice UK Ltd — 2021

The Claimant worked for the Respondent from 24 May 2018 until 15 September 2020 as Sales and Operations Manager with responsibility for the UK branch, on a salary of £36,000 per annum. She gave notice to terminate her employment, and the parties agreed that she would take two weeks' outstanding holiday during the notice period from 2 to 15 September 2020, which exhausted her accrued annual leave.

The tribunal found that the Respondent did not pay the Claimant for the period from 1 August to 15 September 2020. It accepted the Claimant's evidence that she was entitled to gross wages of £4,523.08 for that period, including the holiday period in September, and held that this was an unauthorised deduction from wages contrary to section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. The tribunal ordered repayment of the deducted sum, expressed gross of tax and national insurance.

Applying section 24(2) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, the tribunal also awarded £150 to compensate the Claimant for financial loss attributable to the deduction. It found that she had incurred charges on her mortgage and had to borrow money from friends because she could not secure a bank loan to meet her mortgage payment and other bills, and that she had got into debt as a result.

The Claimant had originally claimed £872.83 in respect of unpaid expenses, but the judgment records that this was paid on or about 10 November 2020 and was no longer pursued. The Respondent did not enter a response and did not participate in the hearing.