Mr Paul Carr v DS Smith Paper Ltd — 2021

Mr Paul Carr brought a complaint of unauthorised deductions from wages against DS Smith Paper Ltd arising from his work as a Logistics Shunter Loader at Kemsley Mill. He said he had been told at recruitment that he would work a five-shift pattern and around 1,760 hours per year, whereas he said he was in fact working around 2,160 hours per year and should have been paid overtime for the additional hours. The tribunal recorded that he remained in employment, having moved from the Shunter Loader role to a Site Logistics Operator role on 1 November 2020.

The tribunal found, on the balance of probabilities, that Mr Carr was not told he would work the hours or pattern he alleged. It accepted evidence from Mr Terry Dooley and Mr Glenn Gibson that the Claimant was offered the Shunter role and given the relevant rota information, and it found that the contracts he signed referred him to yearly shift rotas. The tribunal concluded that the rota documents showed a three-shift system, not the five-shift system the Claimant described, and that the yearly rotas and contract terms were consistent with the Respondent’s case.

The tribunal also accepted Mr Justin Hake’s evidence that the site collective agreement had been varied in 2012/13 to remove a 1,760-hour cap for Shunter roles, although there was no written record of that change. It found that the Claimant’s payslips were inaccurate in showing 37.5 hours and later 32.89 hours, but treated that as a source of confusion only and not as evidence of a wage shortfall. On the evidence, it held that the Claimant was paid in accordance with his contract, the yearly rotas, and the collective agreement.

The tribunal held that no unauthorised deduction had been made and that the Claimant had not discharged the burden of showing wages properly payable but unpaid. It also noted that the complaint was time-limited by s.23(4A) ERA 1996 to deductions within the two years ending 20 November 2020. The claim was dismissed.