Miss E Lerones de la Fuente v Karim Prince Tshibangu and Castle Valley Films Ltd: 3319876/2019
JUDGMENT
The second respondent has made an unauthorised deduction from the claimant’s wages and is ordered to pay £600 to the claimant.REASONS
[1]On 29 June 2019 the claimant submitted a claim for arrears of pay against the respondents, saying “The employer failed to pay my last week of work as member of the crew of the film ‘Shepherd’”. She states that her weekly pay before tax was £600 and that her employment ended on 5 April 2019. She had complied with the necessary early conciliation requirements.[2]Neither respondent has filed a response to the claim. The papers served on the first respondent at the address given by the claimant have been returned “addressee unknown”. The claimant has no other address for the first respondent. No-one from or on behalf of either party has attended the hearing today, so I have to make my decision based on the papers on the tribunal file.[3]I am satisfied from the material in the claimant’s claim (and the lack of any contradiction to it by the respondents) that she is due £600 as unpaid wages. A more difficult question is which of the respondents was her employer and owes the money to her. On the balance of probabilities I have concluded that in the world of film production she would be more likely to be employed Page 1 of 2 Case Number: 3319876/2019 by a company than by an individual, so that the respondent who owes her the money is the second respondent.