Mr T Benn v MD Building Services Limited — 2023

Mr T Benn was employed by MD Building Services Limited from 3 August 2021 to 30 August 2022 as a Plumber / Multi Skilled Operative on an annual salary of £27,500. He brought a claim for unlawful deductions from wages, saying he had worked extra overtime and travel time and should have been paid more than he received. The tribunal recorded that he was a mobile worker, that the contract required him to be at his first place of work by 8.00 am and to remain on site until 5.00 pm, and that overtime was not guaranteed under the written contract.

The tribunal accepted that, for Working Time Regulations purposes, the time spent travelling from home to the first job and from the last job home was working time. It also found, however, that working time and pay were separate issues. Applying contractual interpretation principles, the tribunal held that the contract did not give Mr Benn an express right to extra payment for travel time, and there was no clear express agreement or binding variation of contract creating such a right.

The tribunal found that the Respondent operated a local arrangement under which additional payments were made where travel time exceeded roughly an hour a day, using tracker and PDA data and a further adjustment based on employees "giving an hour". That arrangement was discretionary and not a fixed contractual entitlement to payment for all recorded travel time. On the evidence, the tribunal found that Mr Benn was paid in accordance with that local arrangement.

As to overtime worked on site beyond 5.00 pm, the tribunal found there was no contractual right to be paid for overtime without approval, and no evidence that approved overtime had not been paid. It noted that Mr Benn had been paid overtime at various times during his employment and had not raised a contemporaneous complaint about unpaid agreed overtime. The claim for unlawful deductions from wages was therefore dismissed.