Mr S Alijan v Den Automation Ltd: 3201840/2019
JUDGMENT
Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013 – Rule 21[1]The Respondent has made an unauthorised deduction from the Claimant's wages and is ordered to pay the Claimant the gross sum of £4,313.10. JUDGMENT having been sent to the parties on 5 December 2019 and reasons having been requested in accordance with Rule 62(3) of the Rules of Procedure 2013.REASONS
[1]On 19 November 2019, the Claimant was issued with a Default Judgement in respect of the claim he presented on 3 August 2019. In this claim he claimed unfair dismissal and arrears of pay. He claimed £4,313.10 in respect of unpaid salaries for June and July 2019.[2]Any unfair dismissal claim requires there to be a dismissal. However, the Claimant also stated that he was still an employee of the company and expected to be paid his salary for his current employment until he was either dismissed or he submitted his resignation.[3]It was apparent that the Claimant did not have sufficient qualifying period of employment to claim unfair dismissal as he had less than two years continuous employment.[4]The Respondent did not respond to the claim. This resulted in the Default Judgment for the pleaded claims of unlawful deduction of wages. Given the contents of the Claimant’s claim, he was informed that the hearing planned for 18 November 2019 was deemed unnecessary[5]The amounts specified in the Claimant's email of 17 November 2019 were completely different to that in the initial claim and no explanation was provided as to why. For example, in his claim the Claimant claimed £2,729.76 shortfall for payment in July 2019 whereas the amount specified in the 17 November 2019 email had increased to £4,166.67. The Respondent would not have had a reasonable opportunity to address this change of claim. A fuller enquiry would have been necessary in relation to Case Number: 3201840/2019 the basis for and extent of any additional amounts being claimed and an assessment of relevant payslips, bank statements and accounting information and the P45 statement would have been required. This would have necessitated an adjournment and new hearing date in 2020 to consider this.[6]In respect of any additional claims for unpaid wages or holiday pay, that the Claimant seeks he is entitled to bring a further Employment Tribunal claim for such unpaid amounts and the Respondent will be afforded a full and proper opportunity to deal with them.[7]However, if the Respondent company enters into administration, the Claimant will be required to seek the consent of the administrator to pursue any further claims and may be required to seek payment for outstanding amounts from the National Insurance Fund. In these circumstances, if the case had been adjourned for further consideration the Tribunal would not have been able to issue a Default Judgment without the consent of the administrators.[8]In summary, the amount specified in the undefended claim was £4,313.10. That was the amount of the Default Judgment.