Mr Jackson (representing himself) For the v Respondent — 2019

The claimant brought a complaint of unlawful deduction from wages, said to arise from unpaid holiday pay for 23.5 days in 2018. The tribunal heard evidence from the claimant and Ms Hannah Bennett for the respondent, and found that the practical arrangement between the parties was that the claimant accrued holiday during the year, took time off, and then notified payroll which of those days should be treated as paid holiday once the accrued entitlement was known.

The tribunal accepted that the respondent's written contract and email guidance referred to holiday being taken within the holiday year and, for carried-over holiday, within a six-week grace period. It found, however, that the practice actually operated for the claimant was not consistent with those written provisions, and that the parties had varied the arrangement by consent through the way holiday was administered in 2017 and 2018. The tribunal relied in particular on the 10 December 2018 email in which payroll told the claimant he had 22.5 days' holiday pay accrued and asked him to identify the dates he wanted processed as holiday pay.

On that basis, the tribunal concluded that the claimant had already taken the relevant holiday and was seeking payment for holiday taken, not permission to take untaken holiday out of time. It held that the 'use it or lose it' approach applied to taking holiday, not to requesting payment for holiday already taken, and that there was no deadline in the contract or policies for making that payment request. The tribunal also rejected the respondent's argument that the claim was a series of deductions or was time-barred, and held that the non-payment was an unlawful deduction from wages. It awarded the claimant £7,414.72.