THE INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNALS

CASE REF:	143/12

CLAIMANT:			Ashlyn Horner

RESPONDENTS:		1.	Mandy Corr
				2.	Damien Corr

DECISION
The unanimous decision of the tribunal is that the claimant is entitled to unpaid wages of £2,326.57; notice pay of £207.22; holiday pay of £397.36; and a penalty of £414.44, totalling £3,345.59.

Constitution of Tribunal:
Vice President:		Mr N Kelly
Members:			Mr R Black
				Mr B McCreight

Appearances:
The claimant appeared in person and was not represented.
The respondents appeared in person and was not represented.

1.	The claimant was employed as an assistant in the baby room of a new private nursery started by the first-named respondent.  The employment terminated on 14 November 2011.  The name of the first-named respondent is amended to:-

Mandy Corr

2.	This claim was made more difficult than it should have been because of an almost complete lack of contractual or financial records on the part of the respondents.  As a result on the part of the respondents.  As a result the date of the commencement of employment was in dispute, the contractual hours were in dispute, the amount of wages due was in dispute and the identity of the employer was in dispute.

3.	The tribunal is satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that the claimant commenced work on 5 July 2011.  It does not accept the respondents’ position that work done at that point in time was done by the claimant on an unpaid voluntary basis.  Such a proposition is inherently unlikely.

4.	The tribunal is also satisfied that the claimant’s employer was the first-named respondent.  All claims are therefore dismissed against the second-named respondent.  The only involvement of the second-named respondent in this matter appears to have been that he assisted the first-named respondent, his wife, to interview staff.

5.	The tribunal is satisfied that there was no guaranteed 40 hour week or guaranteed minimum number of hours per week.  If there had been the claimant would have objected to the low number of hours she worked in July and August and there is no evidence that she did so.

6.	The claimant received no wages at all, in the course of this employment, apart from one payment of £140.00 and one payment of £100.00.  She was entitled to the statutory minimum hourly rate of £5.93 and then £6.08.

7.	The claimant did not received a written statement of terms and conditions as required by the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 when commencing employment or at any subsequent period.

Remedy

8.	Unpaid wages

	The claimant worked 177 hours at £5.93 per hour and 249.5 hours at £6.08 per hour:-

		177 x £5.93					=			£1,049.61

		249.5 x £6.08				=			£1,516.96

		Sub total								£2,566.57

		Less payments of £240.00			=			£  240.00

		Total									£2,326.57

9.	The claimant is therefore entitled to £2,326.57 in unpaid wages.

10.	The claimant did not receive notice or pay in lieu of notice and is therefore entitled to one week’s pay in lieu of notice.  The amount of a week’s pay for this purpose is the average pay over the last 12 complete weeks, ie £207.22.

11.	There were no contractual provisions relating to holiday entitlement, the claimant is therefore entitled to 28 days’ pro rata for the entire leave year commencing on 5 July.  No leave was taken.

	The calculation, insofar as it can be made, is therefore:-

		125/365 (fraction of leave year) x £41.44 (daily rate) x 28	=	£397.36

12.	The first-named respondent failed to provide a written statement of particulars of employment as required by Articles 33(1) and 36(1) of the 1996 Order and the tribunal imposes a penalty of two weeks’ pay:-

		£207.22 x 2					=			£414.44

13.	This is a relevant decision for the purposes of the Industrial Tribunals (Interest) Order (Northern Ireland) 1990.

Vice President:

Date and place of hearing:	15 May 2012, Belfast

Date decision recorded in register and issued to parties: