Mr R Mason v Represented by: Mr D McCusker Solicitor Daniel Hoey — 2019

Mr Robert Mason worked as an apprentice plumber for Daniel Hoey from mid-October 2017 until 30 April 2019. He had started a four-year apprenticeship with a previous employer and continued that apprenticeship when he joined the respondent. The respondent did not appear at the final hearing and did not give evidence. The tribunal accepted the evidence of the claimant and his father as credible and reliable.

The claimant was suspended on 19 March 2019 after damage was sustained to a van he was driving, followed by a disciplinary hearing on 3 April 2019 and a summary dismissal letter dated 10 April 2019, with termination deferred to 30 April 2019 so he could sit an apprenticeship examination. On the breach of contract issue, the tribunal found that the respondent had not proved any repudiatory breach by the claimant. Allegations in the response form about gross misconduct, alcohol, failure to report damage, and reputational damage were unsupported by evidence. The tribunal also referred to Jones v Revenue and Customs Comrs on the position of apprenticeship contracts and held that the van accident, by itself, did not amount to a repudiatory act.

On pay, the tribunal held that the claimant was employed under a contract of apprenticeship, but that Regulation 5(1)(b) of the National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015 referred to the first 12 months of the apprenticeship itself, not the first 12 months with a new employer. The claimant was therefore entitled to the national minimum wage rate for a worker aged 21 to 24, and time spent at college counted as time work under Regulation 33. The tribunal awarded £13,427.18 for unlawful deductions from wages, payable subject to applicable income tax and national insurance deductions, and also found that no written particulars of employment had ever been provided, awarding £616 as compensation. The written-statement award was fixed at the minimum two weeks' pay.