Miss D Wiaderna v GDMA Group Limited (Progressive Care) Heard by Cloud Video Platform (CVP) — 2022

Miss D Wiaderna worked for GDMA Group Limited (Progressive Care) as a payroll administrator from 25 January 2021 until she resigned on 27 April 2021. On resignation the respondent deducted £964.46 from her wages, saying it formed part of an alleged debt of £3,535.39. The judgment says the recruitment agency fee should in fact have been £2,415 rather than £2,760, and that a DBS overcharge of £17 had already been repaid, leaving the respondent’s corrected figure at £2,908.00.

The tribunal recorded that the claimant accepted the contractual clauses dealing with training, DBS checks and the recruitment agency fee, but she was concerned about the size of the agency clawback. The tribunal held that the contract was clear as to recovery of training costs, DBS costs and recruitment fees, but that clause 12.3 was ambiguous on whether the respondent could recover the cost of the claimant’s training days as wages. The tribunal said that ambiguity should be resolved in the claimant’s favour.

The reserved judgment’s opening sentence states that the claim that £964.46 was an unauthorised deduction of wages was dismissed. However, paragraph 5.4 then states that £964.46 was an unauthorised deduction and that the balance which might be collected should be no more than £1,943.54. No monetary award was made to the claimant.