ETZ 4(WR) EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS (SCOTLAND) Case No: 8000980/2024 Hearing at Edinburgh by Cloud Video Platform on September 2024 Employment Judge: M A Macleod Ryan Patterson v JAD Homes Limited — 2024

The claimant, Ryan Patterson, brought a claim over untaken holiday accrued between 1 January 2024 and termination on 29 March 2024. He had started work as Commercial Manager on 13 March 2023 on £60,000 per annum, had no written contract, and was entitled to 28 days' holiday in the year. The tribunal treated the dispute as whether annual leave had been taken before termination and whether any balance remained payable.

The tribunal held that 1 and 2 January 2024 were agreed holiday days, and that 3 January was not holiday because the claimant had asked to work from home, had specified the work he would do, and Mr McCormack had indicated that this was acceptable on a WhatsApp group in which Mr Dickson was present but did not intervene. By contrast, the tribunal was not satisfied that the claimant was working rather than on leave during 29 to 31 January 2024 in Kenmore; it relied on the wording of the messages, the claimant's own inconsistency about the days taken, and the fact that he had been away for three days.

The tribunal rejected the respondent's suggestion that the March payment or the claimant's routine absences to assist his mother meant annual leave had been used up. It found there was no express agreement that the payment for March included holiday pay, and no evidence that the claimant understood the time taken to attend to his mother as annual leave. The tribunal concluded that 2 days' annual leave remained outstanding and ordered payment of £300.30 net, calculated from the claimant's monthly net pay of £3,253.19, a weekly rate of £750.74, and two-fifths of that weekly sum.