Mrs Ghada Al-Naimi v Buildmaster Construction Services Limited — 2022

Mrs Ghada Al-Naimi brought a claim under section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 for unauthorised deductions from wages for the period 1 October 2021 to 24 May 2022. The tribunal found that she had been employed by Buildmaster Construction Services Ltd as Company Secretary since 10 July 2002, was paid monthly in arrears, and that her proper gross salary at the material time was £2,400 per month. It found there was no written contract or written statement of terms, and no written document showing any agreed variation of salary.

The respondent's case was that the claimant's wages varied with hours worked and that she had verbally agreed to a reduction because of reduced work during the Covid-19 period. The tribunal rejected that case. It found that the payslips showed the salary had generally remained static apart from limited earlier periods not material to the claim, and that there was nothing in writing evidencing consent to or notification of a pay reduction. It therefore found that what was properly payable had not been paid in full between October 2021 and May 2022.

The tribunal calculated that eight months' salary at £2,400 per month came to £19,200, while the claimant had actually received £9,450, made up of monthly payments of £1,050 in October, November, December 2021 and January and February 2022, and £1,400 in March, April and May 2022. The shortfall was therefore £9,750. The tribunal held that this shortfall amounted to a series of unauthorised deductions within Part II of the 1996 Act and awarded the claimant £9,750 gross payable by the respondent.