Mr C Kennedy, counsel For the v Respondent — 2020

The tribunal dealt with a claim under section 8 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 alleging failure to provide an itemised pay statement for July 2019. An application made at the start of the hearing to amend the claim so as to include August, September and October 2019 was refused, because the claim had been pleaded only for July, the application was made late, the hearing was listed for two hours, and further factual evidence would have been needed. The tribunal therefore confined the case to the July 2019 payslip.

On the facts, the respondent had operated electronic payslips since 2016 and the claimant had been given instructions in January 2017 on how to access the portal. The tribunal accepted that the claimant did not receive a paper payslip for July 2019 on time because of an error by the payroll provider, but found that the respondent had given employees the information needed to access payslips online. It did not accept that the claimant's preference for a paper payslip showed he was unable to access the online system, and it found no evidence that he had told the respondent before the claim that he could not access the portal or needed further training.

Applying the persuasive authority in Anakaa v Firstsource Solutions Ltd, the tribunal held that an electronic payslip can satisfy section 8 where it is accessible, and that an employer must find an alternative method only if it is aware that the employee is actually having difficulty accessing the payslip electronically. The tribunal found that this claimant had not made such difficulty known, and that the respondent was therefore compliant with section 8 in relation to the July 2019 payslip. The claim was dismissed and no remedy was awarded.