Dr Muntasir Abo Al Hayja v Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Trust HELD AT: Manchester (by Cloud Video Platform) — 2024

The claimant, Dr Muntasir Abo Al Hayja, brought an unpaid wages / unauthorised deduction from wages complaint against Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Trust. He said his consultant salary should have been set higher when he started on 6 January 2020 because his Swedish experience had not been fully counted, or because his contract referred to 11 years' seniority. The offer letter of 3 June 2019 stated that he would need a period of retraining/shadowing and that he would be paid within the consultant scale then ranging from £77,913 to £105,042; the claimant negotiated a starting salary of £89,856.

The tribunal held that the relevant period for the wages claim was the two years before the claim because the monthly payments were linked to the same alleged error. It found that the NHS consultant Terms and Conditions formed part of the contractual framework and required evidence of approved consultant-level experience, including equivalent experience in another EEA state. The Trust was entitled to ask for specified evidence of the claimant's foreign experience, and the claimant did not provide the requested job plans, job descriptions and contracts.

The tribunal rejected the argument that the claimant's clinical competence or the shadowing arrangement meant he should be placed higher on the pay scale, and it held that the wages claim could not be used to rewrite the contract itself. It found no evidence of fraud, duress or undue influence, and concluded that the claimant had been paid the sums properly payable under the contract. The claim was therefore dismissed. The tribunal noted that the respondent later suggested the claimant may have been assessed at four years rather than six years' experience, but there was no quantified arrears claim before the tribunal and no amendment was allowed.