Employment Tribunals
Pimlico Plumbers – too late to claim for holiday pay 25 March 2019
The long running legal saga otherwise referred to as Pimlico Plumbers may have come to an end, for now at least, back where it began at the Employment Tribunal.
A journey that has seen Gary Smith and Pimlico Plumbers go all the way to the Supreme Court to establish and uphold worker status and thus the right to for Smith to be paid holiday leave has now received an employment tribunal ruling that confirms that the claim of £74,000 for unpaid holiday fails because it falls outside of the three month rule for claiming.
Pimlico Plumbers had admitted to the claim of unlawful deductions to the value of £336 but denied the payment for holiday pay was due.
Gary Smith is reported to be appealing this ruling.
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Personal Liability of Directors 11 April 2019
The High Court has held that directors of a limited company can be personally liable for its breaches of an employment contract.
In the case Antuzis v DJ Houghton, the Claimants were employed by Houghton in an exploitative manner, working extremely long hours, being paid less than the statutory minimum and frequently not paid the sums due to them. Payments were often withheld and there was no attempt to pay them holiday pay or overtime. Daniel Barnett’s employment law bulletin explains that a director is not generally liable for inducing a breach of contract where they are acting bona fides vis a vis the company. If, however, the breach of contract has a statutory element, that may suggest a failure on the part of the director to comply with their duties to the company, potentially making them liable to a third party (here their employees) for inducing the breach of contract. In this case, the court concluded that the directors were not acting bona fides vis a vis the company because they did not honestly believe that they were paying the minimum wage, overtime and holiday pay nor that they were entitled to withhold payments. They were therefore personally liable for the breaches of contract that they had induced.
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Being on- call could be classed as time work… but not always 23 April 2019
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has recently ruled on whether time spent on call would be considered to be classified as time work in all instances.
Are wardens/receptionists who were on call from evening to morning working on "time work” under the National Minimum Wage legislation?
Yes and no, held the EAT in Frudd v Partington Group. With thanks to Daniel Barnett’s employment law bulletin for providing this update.
The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals
Payroll: need to know
cipp.org.uk
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