An employment tribunal has found a subsidiary of Next Steps Development must pay more than £10,000 to a former employee.
Next Steps Development is a charity dedicated to helping people develop their independence. Sarah Poyser volunteered for the charity and worked for Next Steps @ Barnstaple, a community interest company (CIC), which is a subsidiary of the charity.
The company owed Poyser money for wages and outstanding holiday pay, according to the judgment.
Claimant lent money to the company
Poyser started volunteering for the charity and became the chair in 2019. The charity would need Charity Commission approval to make a payment to a trustee, but there was no restriction for the CIC.
The claim was against the CIC, and “it was common ground” that Poyser had been employed, although there was a dispute over when that employment started.
The charity was founded by Louise Bensley and her husband in 2018, who previously ran a CIC.
Mrs Bensley said someone who worked with that company took a large sum of money from them, which meant that they had to close it down and led to Mrs Bensley being declared bankrupt.
Poyser loaned a sum of money to Next Steps @ Barnstaple so it could meet its payroll obligations to employees in April 2021, according to the judgment.
On 28 February 2022, Poyser was dismissed with immediate effect.
Financial agreement
The judgment found there was an agreement that Poyser would receive £2,500 per month with effect from 1 March 2021 onwards, although payment would initially be deferred until the cash flow situation of the charity and CIC improved.
It states Poyser was not paid from March to July 2021, and the net wages properly payable to her for that period were £10,029.70.
Poyser was not paid for February 2022, and the wages properly payable to her for that period were £1,774.48.
She was additionally entitled to be paid for 7.4 days accrued but untaken holiday on termination, a total of £856.40.
The Charity Commission website shows the charity’s reporting is overdue by seven days, though data for the financial year ending 30 April 2021 shows total income was £555,804.
Civil Society News did not receive a response to its request for comment from the charity.
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