Mrs Ghada Al-Naimi v Buildmaster Construction Services Limited — 2023

Mrs Ghada Al-Naimi brought a claim under section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 for unauthorised deductions from wages for the period June 2022 to May 2023. The tribunal found that she had been employed by Buildmaster Construction Services Ltd as a company secretary, that she was paid monthly in arrears, and that her properly payable gross salary for the period in question was £2,400 per month.

The tribunal found that the claimant in fact received £1,400 gross each month during that period, leaving a shortfall of £1,000 per month and a total shortfall of £12,000. It found there was no written agreement or written variation authorising the reduction in salary, and no contemporaneous documentary evidence supporting the respondent's case that part of the role had become redundant, that she was not entitled to wages because she had done no work, or that she had been dismissed and re-employed on new terms.

The tribunal rejected the respondent's reliance on an alleged verbal variation and on gross misconduct as ending the employment, noting that the respondent continued to pay the claimant at the reduced rate and that there was no documentary support for the asserted change in contractual position. It held that the reduction in pay was not authorised for the purposes of section 13 ERA 1996 and amounted to a series of unauthorised deductions within section 23 ERA 1996. The claimant was awarded £12,000 gross.