Ms Freda Moulds Respondent The Trustees of Whirlow Hall farm Trust (a registered Charity) v Respondent — 2023

The claimant, Ms Freda Moulds, was employed from 3 November 2021 as cafe manager. Her contract included clause 11.5, which provided that unused holiday could not be carried forward, and clause 22, an entire-agreement clause. The issues before the tribunal were whether five days taken off in April 2022 had wrongly been treated as TOIL, and whether there was an oral agreement allowing unused holiday to be carried over so that payment would be due on termination of employment on 21 December 2022.

On the April 2022 five-day issue, the tribunal found that the claimant had received her April 2022 payslip and was fixed with constructive knowledge of its contents. It held that she did not complain until proceedings were issued on 16 March 2023, well outside the three-month time limit. The tribunal was not satisfied that it had not been reasonably practicable for her to bring the claim in time, so that head failed as out of time.

On the carry-over issue, the tribunal accepted that the claimant had asked Ms Hill-Wickham on several occasions from spring 2022 onwards whether holiday could be carried forward, but it preferred Ms Hill-Wickham's evidence that permission was not given and that Mr Davies declined the request. The tribunal found that no oral agreement was established. It also found that there was no written recording of any variation to the contract, and that an oral understanding could not displace the express written no-carry-over term in clause 11.5. The claim was dismissed in full.