A WAITRESS who was denied her wages after working “seven days a week” at a Thai restaurant for four months will receive over £24,000 in compensation.
An employment and discrimination tribunal has found that the St Helier eatery was “unreasonable” to withhold the salary of employee Anna Sabrina Schmiedel.
In his judgement, deputy chair Advocate Cyril Whelan found that Ms Schmiedel was not paid for any of the 230.5 hours she had worked for the Spice of Life restaurant throughout the month of April 2026.
It was said that she began working for the company in August 2017, but that her relationship with the restaurant changed after a switch of ownership at the end of 2025 – during which Mr Mohammad Sultan Al-Mahmood became responsible for her payroll.
Advocate Whelan said that WhatsApp messages sent between Ms Schmiedel and Mr Al-Mahmood between March and April 2026 “make uncomfortable reading”.
“Almost every evening Ms Schmiedel is seen asking him to send money to pay the delivery drivers engaged on the takeaway side of the business,” he said.
“Suppliers are seen putting the account on stop for invoices unpaid since January. She is seen ordering stock, reporting the day’s taking late at night, and asking, again and again, when the wages will come.”
He added that her wages for March were eventually paid late by Mr Al-Mahmood “so that she could pay her rent”, but that no return was passed on to Revenue Jersey containing employee contributions.
The deputy chair stated that Ms Schmiedel’s work for the entirety of April went unpaid, despite messages indicating that she was “running the restaurant day to day while the owner was away, and doing so well into the evenings”.
Mr Al-Mahmood told the hearing that he had withheld his employee’s wages “on advice from the Jersey Advisory and Conciliation Service”, because he believed that Ms Schmiedel has worked “unauthorised overtime” at the restaurant.
However, Advocate Whelan noted that the waitress’ contract took overtime into account and gave “no right to withhold pay while a query about hours is looked into”.
“During March and April, the restaurant depended on her to stay open, and she was told that staffing allowed her no days off,” he declared. “These additional hours were plainly required.”
Resultingly, he found that Ms Schmiedel was entitled to £2,572.20 for her unpaid hours in April and a further £356.50 for unpaid hours in May.
He also ordered that she be repaid the deductions taken from her wages in March and not passed on to Revenue Jersey, which amounted to £882.48.
Furthermore, Advocate Whelan judged that Ms Schmiedel was prevented from exercising her entitlement to an uninterrupted rest period of at least 24 hours in each 7-day period, after being told that not have full days off “because the staff were too few”.
Ms Schmiedel was awarded £2,170 in compensatory rest payments, equivalent to four weeks’ pay.
Finally, the tribunal found in favour of constructive unfair dismissal on the basis that Spice of Life had “no reasonable and proper cause” for withholding the respondent’s wages.
An award of £14,105 for 26 weeks’ pay was then uplifted by 10% on the basis of the “evident distress” occasioned to Ms Schmiedel.
“The company’s conduct was unreasonable,” he concluded. “It held back all of an employee’s earned pay, including the hours it accepted were owed, while it looked into a dispute about hours, and it kept money deducted for tax.
“I cannot overlook the evident distress suffered by Ms Schmiedel as she had to pursue what was due to her in order, apart from anything else, to meet her rent and living expenses.
“And, this to a point where she was rendered too ill, by certificated stress and anxiety, to continue working for a time.”
The total amount awarded to Ms Schmiedel – with an additional £2,170 added for unlawful dismissal – was £24,667.23.
