(1) Miss H Yacoob (2) Miss A Patel (3) Miss S Taylor (4) Miss S Curley v Shine Bright Day Care & Out of School Club Limited — 2022

Employment Judge Knowles, sitting at Leeds by video on 16 August 2022, determined unauthorised deduction from wages claims brought by four claimants against Shine Bright Day Care & Out of School Club Limited. The First and Second Claimants did not attend and had not responded to Tribunal enquiries, and their claims were struck out under Rule 37 of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013 as not being actively pursued. The Third and Fourth Claimants attended and gave evidence, as did Ms McDonald, owner of the Respondent.

Applying section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, the Tribunal found that the Respondent had no statutory or contractual authority for the disputed deductions. The overpayment deduction taken from the Third Claimant's wages was not excepted by section 14 because it related to sums owed to a different legal entity (another former employer owned by Ms McDonald), not to the Respondent. The training-fee clause was not engaged because the Third and Fourth Claimants had accepted the Respondent's repudiatory breach of contract (its failure to pay wages) and so had not chosen to leave employment within the meaning of the clause. The inventory authorised deductions only for the key fob and building keys, but those items had been returned, so the corresponding wages were due. The inventory did not cover the laptop or mobile telephone, and the staff-handbook short-notice clause was not engaged because no notice was due from a claimant who had accepted a repudiatory breach.

The Tribunal ordered the Respondent to pay the Third Claimant £4,680.00 gross (three months' pay) and the Fourth Claimant £2,851.98 gross (two months' pay), with the Respondent responsible for any statutory deductions for income tax and employee national insurance contributions.