A Dundee beauty salon linked to a troubled national chain has been ordered to pay a former employee over £2,100 in unpaid wages and pension deductions after it was found to have withheld them unlawfully.
Skin HQ was found to have made unauthorised deductions from Rachel Dingwall's wages and has been ordered to repay them in full by an employment tribunal. The company, based in the former DP&L building in East Dock Street, sent her a paycheque after she quit the job in January 2022 but failed to make good on her final earnings.
Skin HQ operated a number of beauty salons across the UK, but closed them down earlier this year amid claims customers were being charged for treatments they were never able to receive. The Dundee branch later rebranded as Skin@ but has since closed down.
Miss Dingwall, who represented herself, told the tribunal that she began working for the firm in October last year but quit in January. SkinHQ sent her a final wage slip detailing her wages - but failed to pay them on the last day of the month as expected.
Employment judge Russell Bradley found that SkinHQ had deducted £160.22 of pension contributions from her wages, but failed to pay them forward to pension provider Nest. It later emerged that she had not been enrolled in the pension scheme at all, making the deductions illegal.
SkinHQ finally enrolled her in the pension scheme on March 19 - nearly two months after she left. But the judge said Miss Dingwall's account was "credible" and, in a written summary of the case, concluded that Miss Dingwall's claim of an unlawful deduction of wages was "well-founded".
He awarded her £1947.49 in unpaid wages, including a £338 income tax rebate, and £160.22 in unlawfully deducted pension contributions. In all, the former beauty worker was awarded £2,107.71.
SkinHQ did not respond to the tribunal's request for evidence and did not appear at the tribunal, held in May. The Dundee branch is among several which has received negative reviews on reviews website TrustPilot alleging that customers paid for treatments they did not receive.
Dundee Live sought to contact the company by email, but attempts to do so were met with the error: "Your message wasn't delivered to info@skinhq.co.uk because the address couldn't be found or is unable to receive email."
An automatic response from the company on Facebook added: "There has been misinformation spread online which has caused mass refunds & since then there have been a high number of burglaries across our clinics. If you have any issues please email info@skinhq.co.uk."
Miss Dingwall did not respond to a request for comment.
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