Benjamin Mendy beats Manchester City in court over unpaid wages

Former Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy wins the majority of employment tribunal claim against the former club over £11.5m in unpaid salary after he was charged with rape offences.

The ruling was presided over by Judge Joanne Dunlop during a hearing at the Manchester Employment Tribunal, who said she had concluded that Mendy is entitled to recover some, but not all of the sums claimed.

She said,

"While Mr Mendy was not in custody, he was ready and willing to work and was prevented from doing so which was unavoidable or involuntary on his part. In those circumstances, and absent any authorisation in the contract for the employer to withhold pay, he was entitled to be paid. I doubt that quite so much legal expertise and endeavour has ever before been expended in the prosecution and defence of a wages claim brought by a single claimant.But then, I am also fairly sure that no other single claimant has ever alleged that sums in the region of £11 million have been deducted from his wages.”

What happened between Benjamin Mendy and Manchester City?

The French international took Manchester City to an employment tribunal in Manchester last month ( October 2024) claiming his former club had wrongly stopped his £500,000-a-month salary after he was charged with sex offences and remanded into custody in August 2021.

The 30-year-old claimed a 22-month period, five of which were when he was in custody for breaching bail conditions and therefore not entitled to pay.

Recall that Mendy was found not guilty of six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault in January 2023, but the same jury could not reach a verdict on another count of rape and one count of attempted rape. This led to a retrial after which the French man was found not guilty of one charge of rape and one charge of attempted rape.

However, with this current ruling, this means that the exact amount he will receive is to be calculated by Mendy and the club, or determined at a future hearing if they cannot reach an agreement.

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