Mr Ian Aird v Marc Allan Builders — 2022

The respondent did not lodge an ET3 and was neither present nor represented. The tribunal heard from Mr Ian Aird, accepted his evidence as credible and reliable, and found that he began work as a joiner for Marc Allan Builders on 12 October 2020 at £15 per hour for 40 hours per week. The tribunal found he was usually paid one week in arrears, that no written contract or statement of terms had been issued, and that on 8 August 2021 Mr Allan told him not to return to work after an earlier telephone conversation about a minor plumbing incident.

The unfair dismissal claim was not pursued. The claimant accepted that he did not have two years' continuous service and withdrew that claim, and the tribunal dismissed it under Rule 52.

On the remaining contractual and statutory claims, the tribunal found that the claimant had been summarily dismissed without prior notice and that there was no basis for summary termination. It treated the failure to give one week's notice as a breach of contract and awarded £477.75, using the claimant's last net weekly pay as the measure of loss. It also found that the claimant had taken no paid leave in 2021, that his holiday entitlement had been shown as reducing from 28 days to 9.97 days without explanation, and that 18 days' accrued untaken holiday pay succeeded under the Working Time Regulations, producing an award of £1,710.35.

The tribunal further found that the claimant had not been paid for the week beginning 2 August 2021 to 6 August 2021. It held that the respondent had made an unlawful deduction from wages contrary to section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and ordered payment of £477.75 in respect of that deduction. The monetary awards therefore totalled £2,665.85.