Ms S Di Duca v The Nail and Beauty Zone Limited — 2024

Ms S Di Duca brought a claim for unlawful deduction from wages arising from a contractual dispute about whether she had been given her weekly entitlement to shifts after the West Nile Street spa was temporarily closed. Her contract required 32 hours each week on a rota, and the tribunal found that it allowed flexibility as to work location, including work at other PURE sites where business need required it.

The tribunal accepted that the respondent had notified staff on 1 October 2024 that West Nile Street would be unavailable for a period because of building works, and that it then tried to allocate alternative shifts through direct messages and a WhatsApp group. The claimant initially said she had not been offered any shifts for the week commencing 5 October 2024, but she later conceded that she had been offered a Renfrew shift on 6 October 2024 and that she had been offered further shifts during the week. The tribunal also found that the respondent had offered shifts on 3 October 2024 for 6, 9 and 12 October, and that an Edinburgh shift was offered on 7 October 2024 for the following day.

The tribunal held that offers of shifts could be made through the WhatsApp group and did not have to be made directly and personally to the claimant, provided the shift was genuinely available and would be given if accepted. It found that the claimant had been offered four shifts in the relevant week with reasonable notice, even though some later messages were not reasonable because they were sent too late in the evening or with insufficient notice. On that basis, the tribunal concluded that the respondent had complied with its contractual obligation and that the complaint of unlawful deduction from wages was ill founded.