A student has taken Village Pizza in Twickenham to an employment tribunal after he allegedly worked at the store without pay.

Shakib Fard helped staff make pizzas, but managers of the store said he was taken on after having been told they had no jobs to offer, but would give him training.

Managers Mohammad Habibian and Katy Habibian represented Village Pizza at the tribunal on Tuesday, July 30.

Mr Fard told the tribunal in Croydon that after leaving the company in March he suffered sleepless night for weeks which caused him to fail an exam.

He said: “It had a very negative impact on me. My purpose of being here today is to stop Mr Mohammad treating me like this.”

Mrs Habibian said: “The understanding from the staff was that you were desperate for work, but you were specifically told we had no vacancies.

“For that reason we asked you that if you wanted to come in to work because everybody wanted to help and they felt sorry for you.”

Mr Fard said during the tribunal: “If I didn’t discuss with someone working there, how could I just walk in and start working there?”

Mr Habibian said Mr Fard was asked to leave because other staff felt his level of work was not good enough.

Mrs Habibian said in her summing up: “I’m really sorry that he thought that he was told he was being paid but we never asked him to come in. We said if he left his CV with us we could get back to you.”

A decision is expected within four weeks.

 

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