Cleaner claim fails after job mess up

Friday 13 October 2017

A cleaner who said that she had been unfairly dismissed and denied wages by her employer has had her claim struck out after it emerged that she shouldn’t even have been employed in the first place.

Miss Karolina Gorazd, who had worked as a cleaner since she arrived in Jersey in 2014, brought 12 claims against Quayside Café in the Employment and Discrimination Tribunal last month.

Four of those included race discrimination, victimisation and harassment, but those were withdrawn at the start of the hearing. The remaining claims related to wrongful dismissal, unpaid wages, holiday and bank holiday pay and failure to provide uninterrupted rest periods. 

The key contention, however, was a lack of written terms of employment, which she argued – through a third party who used a translator – had led to her constructive dismissal.

During the hearing, the Panel heard that she had been employed by Clean 24/7, which was owned by Mr Stephen Drakes. The company held three licenses to employ ‘Registered’ people with less than five years’ residency in the island, and was therefore legally entitled to take on Miss Gorazd.

Pictured: The Albert Pier-based Quayside Café.

The problem began, however, after the company lost a number of contracts throughout 2015. Early on, Miss Gorazd only worked on an ‘informal’ basis, but by Autumn 2015, her hours had risen to 06:00 to 15:00, six days per week.

She continued working for Clean 24/7 until halfway through 2016, but most of her hours were for the Mr Drakes’ other business – the Quayside Café. Both sides were therefore convinced that she was working for the Albert Pier-based café, rather than for the cleaning company.

Miss Gorazd acknowledged “from the outset” that the Population Office had not granted Quayside Café the necessary licence to employ her. As such, she knew she was working wrongfully, but later asked Mr Drakes to rectify the Housing and Work Law breach, and obtain a licence for her from the Population Office.

Given that she had worked in breach of this law, the Panel struck out all of Miss Gorazd’s claims against Quayside Café.

Mrs Hillary Griffin, Chairman of the Panel, concluded: “Under the provisions of the Housing and Work Law, an individual who is classed as having “Registered” status (i.e. has lived in Jersey for less than five years and is not “Licenced”) may not work for a business unless that business has a licence which specifically entitles it to employ Registered individuals.  Therefore, if a business employs a “Registered” individual but does not have the necessary licence, it acts illegally.

“As set out above, the contract was void and unenforceable. Therefore the Claimant:

a) was not an employee of the Respondent;

b) did not enjoy statutory employment rights as set out in the Employment (Jersey) Law 2003; and

c) cannot pursue any breach of contract claim against the Respondent because the contract did not exist in law.”