Mr. K. Owsiany v Lidl Great Britain Ltd. Heard by: Video (CVP) — 2023

The claimant worked for Lidl Great Britain Ltd as a customer assistant on 25 hours a week and was on sick leave from December 2019 to May 2022. The tribunal found that clause 8.10 of his contract meant that after one month’s continuous sickness absence he stopped accruing contractual holiday and instead was entitled to holiday under the Working Time Regulations 1998, namely 28 days per holiday year. Although the respondent’s records contained errors in the way his holiday was credited, the tribunal found those errors left him with more leave than he was entitled to, not less, so the claim for accrued but untaken holiday failed.

The tribunal accepted that the claimant did not receive the respondent’s £150 voucher issued in April 2020 because he was absent from work at that time. It found that the voucher claim was first advanced in this case on 2 June 2022, well outside the primary three-month time limit. For the unlawful deduction from wages claim, the tribunal found it was not reasonably practicable for him to bring the claim in time because he did not know about the voucher in 2020, but he did not present it within such further time as was reasonable because he knew about it by late 2021 or at the latest by 25 April 2022 and did not include it in his earlier tribunal proceedings.

The same voucher complaint was also pleaded as disability discrimination. The tribunal found that this complaint was also out of time and that it was not just and equitable to extend time. In reaching that conclusion, it noted the claimant’s evidence that he had been suffering from depression, but found there was no medical evidence showing he could not act earlier, and that he was able to conduct his second tribunal claim and liaise about the holiday issue before May 2022. Balancing prejudice to both parties, the tribunal held that the claimant had not shown a sufficient basis for an extension.