Ms Anita Lucking v First Greater Western Limited — 2021

The tribunal dismissed both claims. On the furlough complaint, it found there was generally no entitlement to be placed on furlough and, in any event, the respondent was prevented from furloughing staff because of its agreement with the Department for Transport. The claimant therefore did not establish that any wages were properly payable on that basis.

On the second complaint, the tribunal found that the claimant's contract expressly provided for 320 annual hours averaging 6.15 hours per week, with payment for hours actually worked. The claimant had read and signed that contract, understood its terms, and had worked under it throughout her employment.

The tribunal declined to imply a term that would convert the arrangement into a 20-hours-per-week summer contract. It found that the flexible annualised-hours contract reflected how the parties operated in practice, including the claimant's concentration of work in the busier summer period, and concluded that the respondent had paid what was properly payable when it used the contractual average weekly hours during the period when she was stood down from work.