A RESTAURANT which closed after it claimed it was owed £85,000 from the government’s Co-Funded Payroll scheme has been ordered to pay more than £6,000 in unpaid wages to two former staff members.
Shinzo in St Aubin – which specialised in sushi, steak and cocktails – announced in May that it would close when its owner Gavin Roberts said he was owed money from the government’s pandemic fund.
However, this was disputed by Customer and Local Services director general Ian Burns, who said that the business had received ‘funds in the region of £229,000’ from business support schemes. He added that any outstanding claims for a small fraction of the overall total had been settled.
Now two former staff members – Vasile Buciuman and Lorena Bretan – have had claims for unpaid wages confirmed by the Employment and Discrimination Tribunal, for £3,241 and £2,725 respectively. They had also claimed unfair dismissal or constructive unfair dismissal, notice and holiday pay and compensation for a lack of payslips.
Giving judgment, tribunal deputy chair Advocate Cyril Whelan noted that in the case of both staff members the company had responded to the claims to contest everything except the unpaid wages, and it had made a general offer of settlement.
As a result, the employees asked the tribunal to make an award to cover their unpaid wages, taking advantage of a legal provision that allows the tribunal to deal with an uncontested case without fixing a full hearing before a tribunal member.
It was for the tribunal, Advocate Whelan explained, to decide whether the claim for wages constituted a ‘free-standing claim’, so that it could be regarded as a single uncontested issue in spite of the fact that the claim forms of both employees also listed the other grievances disputed by the employer.
Advocate Whelan said: ‘I so conclude, and am fortified in that conclusion by the fact that the claim for wages is plainly distinct from the other matters of default listed by the claimant, being a claim arising at common law rather than statute.’
The deputy chair subsequently confirmed the uncontested awards to each of the former staff members, in two separate judgments.
