In person For the v Dr J Park, Managing Director of the Respondent — 2021

Mr Vernon Smeed brought monetary claims against DongBang AcuPrime Limited for unlawful deduction from wages, including accrued but unpaid holiday pay. The holiday pay claim was met by the respondent before judgment and was withdrawn; the tribunal recorded it as dismissed on withdrawal.

The remaining issue was the deduction from the claimant’s July 2020 salary. The parties agreed that gross salary of £1,843.45 was due for the period 1 July to 23 July 2020, and that the respondent had not paid it in full. The tribunal accepted that, after the claimant was suspended on 15 July 2020, he failed to hand over the respondent’s phone, laptop, passwords and related IT access as instructed, and that the respondent incurred additional cost in trying to recover commercially valuable contacts, files and emails.

The tribunal found that clause 9(c) of the claimant’s contract permitted deductions for losses caused by dishonesty, carelessness, negligence, recklessness or breach of policies or procedures. It accepted that the respondent was entitled to deduct the £1,320.00 invoice from Acronyms Ltd for specialist IT recovery work, but it rejected the respondent’s attempt to deduct the time spent by its own employees in trying to resolve the issue. After that deduction, £523.45 remained due to the claimant and had been unlawfully deducted from his wages.

The claim for unlawful deduction from wages therefore succeeded in part, and the tribunal ordered the respondent to pay the claimant £523.45 gross. No separate remedy was awarded for the withdrawn holiday pay claim.