Ms L Doga v Maccorp UK Ltd — 2020

Ms L Doga worked for Maccorp UK Ltd as a Trainee Foreign Exchange Cashier from 1 November 2019 until summary termination on 17 March 2020. The tribunal found that the 23 October 2019 offer letter was the contractual document given to her, that it did not incorporate the respondent's 7-page template, that no employee handbook was produced, and that the 2020 Operations Manual was not shown to have been provided or treated as contractually binding. On that basis, the respondent had no contractual term authorising deductions for till errors or alleged forged-banknote losses.

The claimant accepted responsibility for two card-processing errors on 6 January 2020 and signed a repayment arrangement for £518.57 in two instalments. The tribunal held that her consent to that arrangement was effective, but that she was in retail employment within section 17 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, so deductions for cash shortages were subject to the section 18 10% cap on relevant pay days. The £6.89 deduction in December 2019 was allowed, but the January 2020 deduction of £259.29 exceeded the cap by £163.65 and the February 2020 deduction exceeded the cap by £296.29. The tribunal also found no evidential basis for any deduction for alleged forged-banknote losses of £898.38.

For March 2020, the tribunal held that the final instalment of wages was paid on 31 March 2020 and that the section 18 cap did not apply to that final instalment. It accepted that the March £133 till-error deduction was authorised against the remaining agreed balance, but found that the respondent underpaid salary for 1 to 17 March by applying an impermissible shift-pattern calculation rather than a pro rata daily calculation. The amount properly payable for that period was £743.61, the amount paid was £410.50, and the resulting unauthorised deduction was £333.11. The claim succeeded in the total gross sum of £793.05, subject only to PAYE deductions.