Miss H Mellor v Rosemead Limited trading as Whiterose Pharmacy — 2023

Miss Mellor worked as a dispensing assistant for Rosemead Limited trading as Whiterose Pharmacy from 2019. After she resigned on 15 September 2022, the tribunal found that the email exchange on 15 and 16 September 2022 agreed that her employment would end on 12 October 2022, at the end of her four-week notice period. It found that she worked 50 hours in September 2022 and was entitled to statutory sick pay from 16 September 2022 to 30 September 2022, so £673.70 gross was properly payable for that period.

The tribunal held that the deductions made from her 30 September 2022 wages for training costs and replacement cover were not authorised by the contract of employment or by the DAC agreement. It found that the termination clause was ambiguous and, in any event, applied only to deductions from termination pay; the general deduction clause was too broad to authorise the specific deductions made; and the training wording referred only to repayment, not a right to deduct from wages. Applying section 13 ERA 1996 and the contractual interpretation authorities it cited, the tribunal upheld the unlawful deductions claim and ordered payment of £673.70 gross.

The holiday pay complaint failed because the claimant did not show, on the balance of probabilities, that she had 1.5 hours of accrued but untaken holiday due on termination. The tribunal also rejected her reliance on a £500 loan from her mother and a £495.93 missed mortgage payment as recoverable losses, and it noted that her later decision not to return to work did not alter whether the September deduction had been authorised.