Lisa Nutt v Meggitt Aerospace Ltd — 2020

Lisa Nutt was employed by Meggitt Aerospace Ltd as a contract manager and was made redundant on 31 July 2020. She had been furloughed from 3 April 2020 and had received 80% of normal salary under the CJRS, with the respondent topping up pay to 100% for the first three weeks of furlough and later applying a clearly stated furlough pay offset because of the mismatch between payroll dates and CJRS claim periods.

The only live issue at hearing was whether there had been an unlawful deduction from wages under section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 in relation to July 2020 furlough pay. The tribunal accepted the respondent's evidence that it had explained how the scheme and offset worked, and rejected the claimant's case that she had been promised the July furlough payment as an additional sum during redundancy consultation. It also accepted that the claimant had not called the person said to have made that promise and that there was no documentary support for it.

The tribunal found that the claimant had misunderstood how the furlough arrangement operated. It held that she had in fact received her July furlough pay on her final payslip, but that the offset mechanism and the fact she worked no actual hours in August meant there was a net shortfall only on the claimant's preferred analysis, not an unlawful deduction. Applying the burden of proof on the claimant and the respondent's reliance on section 14(1)(a) ERA 1996, the tribunal concluded that the claimant had been paid the correct amount on termination and dismissed the claim.