Mr D Roe v The Trustees of Driffield Community Centre — 2023

The claimant, a part-time caretaker employed from January 2019, brought a claim for unpaid holiday pay under the Working Time Regulations 1998. The tribunal found that, at least during the first year of employment, he had been told by Mr Rounding and/or Mr Stocker that he was not entitled to holiday pay. Ms Wells denied that this had been said, but she had not been present for the relevant conversations, and the respondent did not produce witness evidence from the people alleged to have given the denial. The respondent also relied on only one example of paid time off, a seven-day trip to Spain, and produced no holiday pay records. It was accepted that Ms Wells began paying holiday pay from 1 February 2022.

Applying Smith v Pimlico Plumbers Limited [2022] EWCA Civ 70, the tribunal held that the claimant had not been specifically and transparently given the opportunity to take paid annual leave, encouraged to take it, and informed that it would be lost at the end of the leave year. On that basis, the leave did not lapse in the usual way and carried over until termination. The parties agreed the calculation if holiday pay was due, and the tribunal awarded £2,105.24, made up of the agreed accrued amounts from January 2019 to 31 January 2022 less £130.18 for the Spanish trip.