in person For the v Ms L Neal solicitor — 2022

The claimant, a mobile civil enforcer, said he was off work sick after a road traffic accident on 3 November 2020, when he swerved to avoid a fox. He was absent from 4 November 2020 to 4 January 2021 and brought a claim for non-payment of sick pay. The tribunal set out section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and referred to New Century Cleaning Co Ltd v Church on the need for an actual legal entitlement to the sums claimed as wages properly payable.

The tribunal found that the claimant's contract of employment and the Handbook of Employment governed company sick pay and did not create any special rule for absence caused by an accident at work. For employees with the claimant's length of service, the policy provided six weeks, or 30 working days, of full pay in a rolling 12-month period, reduced by qualifying absences in the previous 12 months and subject to statutory sick pay offsets. On the evidence, the claimant had already used 16 days in March and April 2020 and a further 14 days in November 2020, so his 30-day entitlement was exhausted on 23 November 2020.

The tribunal also found that the relevant payslips reflected the contractual payroll cut-off dates, so the timing of the payments matched the employer's pay cycle. The claimant had pursued an internal grievance and appeal, but the tribunal did not accept that he had shown entitlement to further sick pay or that comparison with other employees assisted him. It held that the respondent had adhered to and applied the claimant's contract of employment, and dismissed the unlawful deduction from wages claim.