A care charity has been forced to pay more than £20,000 to a former employee after an employment tribunal upheld claims of unfair dismissal and unauthorised deductions from wages.
Multicultural Elderly Care Centre, based in Glasgow, was ordered to pay Ms S Zafar a total of £21,316.40, following an employment tribunal judgment that was made on 30 June and published yesterday.
This comprised £12,322 for unfair dismissal and an additional of £1,028 representing four weeks’ pay.
The charity will also have to pay Ms Zafar £6,887 for unpaid or short-paid wages between 1 December 2020 and 30 September 2021, as well as a payment of £1,079 for accrued leave that was not taken during the period when Ms Zafar’s employment was terminated.
Ms Zafar was represented by a solicitor at the hearing but no representative or staff member for Multicultural Elderly Care Centre attended.
The charity’s accounts for the most recent tax year are 193 days overdue, according to the Scottish Charity Regulator.
The claimant had previously withdrawn a claim for a statutory redundancy payment prior to the hearing.
The judgment says that notice of the hearing was sent to Multicultural Elderly Care Centre in May.
The decision document said that the judge “invited the respondent to provide an email address within seven days for joining the hearing.
“The respondent failed to provide any email address or to make any contact with the tribunal regarding the arrangements to attend the hearing. The respondent did not attend and was not represented at the hearing.”
Third Sector contacted Multicultural Elderly Care Centre for comment but the charity’s email and contact number no longer appear to be working.