In person For the v One Health Medical Group Limited — 2019

A separate unfair dismissal claim had already been struck out on 18 December 2019 for lack of qualifying service, so the hearing on 19 December 2019 concerned only the claimant’s complaint that the respondent had withheld her final pay for the period 1 June 2019 to 3 July 2019.

The claimant worked as an anaesthetic practitioner. Her contract provided for annual salary of £42,000, contained a deductions clause allowing recovery of money due from the employee or overpayments, and the respondent’s working hours policy said salaried staff had to work their total hours or have the shortfall deducted from pay. The respondent said the claimant had not worked the minimum hours and that she owed the respondent more than £6,000, while also referring to weekend work worth £544. The tribunal found that no deductions had previously been made during the employment, that the claimant did not materially decline rostered shifts, and that any shortfall in hours was apparent from the monthly timesheets from December 2018 onwards.

The tribunal held that, although the contract allowed deductions for overpayments, an implied term required that power to be exercised reasonably, with prior notice of the proposed deduction, the basis for it, and the amount, together with an opportunity for the employee to respond. It also found an implied term that any deduction should be made within a reasonable time. On the facts found, the respondent had affirmed the earlier salary practice by continuing to pay monthly wages without deduction and by not acting until after the claimant had resigned.

For those reasons, the withholding of the claimant’s final wages was an unauthorised deduction from wages within Part II of the ERA 1996, and the tribunal awarded her £3,815, being her normal wages for the period 1 June 2019 to 3 July 2019. On the weekend premium point, the tribunal held that the premium accrued month by month and could be offset against any shortfall in actual hours worked, so it did not give rise to a separate deduction on the facts found.