Miss J Sutton and Mr L Bartlett v Liral Veget College Ltd — 2020

The claimants, Miss Sutton and Mr Bartlett, began work at Nantsidyll Farm on 2 February 2018. The tribunal found that the parties had agreed a joint contract for 57 hours a week with joint annual pay of £21,600, with the work broadly divided between farm keeping and housekeeping, but with both claimants jointly responsible for the combined duties. Their unfair dismissal complaints had already been dismissed at a preliminary hearing on 26 February 2019 because they lacked sufficient qualifying service.

On the wage claim, the tribunal accepted that Ms Sutton worked the hours she claimed on 18, 19 and 20 June 2018 and that both claimants were due pay for 21 June as well. It rejected the respondent's case that the February handbook had been received, rejected any oral term authorising deductions, and held that the May amended offer did not create an express or implied right to make general deductions. Applying the approach in Marks and Spencer plc v BNP Paribas and JN Hipwell & Son v Szurek, the tribunal found that no wider implied deduction term was necessary or obvious. It held that only limited deductions had been authorised in writing, leaving gross unpaid wages of £177.70 for Ms Sutton and £421.50 for Mr Bartlett.

For holiday pay, the tribunal found that employment ended on 21 June 2018 and that the claimants had accrued 38% of the leave year by that date. It calculated entitlement under the Working Time Regulations 1998 at 11 days' holiday, valued by reference to the joint remuneration figure at £100.64 per day, producing awards of £553.52 gross each. The tribunal declined to impose a financial penalty under section 12A of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996, finding that it had not established deliberate and repeated breaches and that the handbook issue remained genuinely contested.