Unfairly treated baker gets his dough

Sunday 30 July 2017

A Jersey Employment Tribunal has ordered a local bakery to pay one of its former employees more than £3,000 in unpaid wages.

Mr Jose Pinto took Sam’s Bakery to court because he claimed they hadn’t paid him the notice period he’d worked, overtime he was owed, and for holidays he never took.

Mr Pinto, who worked as a baker’s assistant for the company from 2 August 2016 to 18 April 2017, handed in his notice on 1 April. He gave two weeks’ notice, but ended up working three extra days over the Easter period due to staff shortages. He told the tribunal he never got paid his notice or the extra days.

He also told the tribunal his hours of work were supposed to be from 20:00 to 04:00, but on an occasional basis starting in the run-up to Christmas, and on a permanent basis from 1 January, he was asked to do two hours overtime every day and come in at 18:00. Again he was never paid for this.

Finally, he told the tribunal he’d worked all six of the bank holidays between August 2016 and 18 April 2017.  He stated that he was not given days off in lieu of those bank holidays.  He also confirmed that he did not take any annual leave between 1 January 2017 to 18 April 2017 and did not receive a payment in lieu of such holiday entitlement upon the termination of his employment.

The company failed to answer any of the allegations and, despite being given the opportunity to do so, failed to engage in the tribunal process. 

Tribunal Chairman Mrs Hilary Griffin concluded on the evidence presented to her Mr Pinto was entitled to compensation and awarded him a total of £3,225.00.