Miss C Prigg v TFS Buying Limited — 2023

The claimant, an area manager, resigned on 25 March 2022. The tribunal accepted that she had signed a contract containing a deduction clause and had been issued with expenses and Amex policies requiring receipts, approval and prior authorisation. It found, however, that neither the contract nor the policies said that excessive or unauthorised business credit-card expenditure could be recovered from wages, and that the respondent could instead have dealt with breaches through disciplinary action.

The tribunal held that deductions of £713 for parking penalty charges were lawful because they were covered by the contractual deduction term and the claimant had written on 24 March 2022 that the respondent could pay the penalties and deduct them from wages. By contrast, deductions totalling £766.18 for Amex-related expenditure were unlawful: £695.20 was said to relate to business expenditure on the company card and £70.98 to an unauthorised business expense, but the respondent had no contractual authority to deduct those sums. The tribunal also noted that any late fees on the company credit card were not clearly broken down and the claimant had not been told that such fees could be deducted from wages. The unlawful deduction claim under s.13 ERA 1996 was therefore well-founded, and the tribunal ordered payment of £960.76.

On holiday pay, the tribunal accepted the parties' agreed accrued holiday figure of £836.63 and found that the respondent's payment of £876.64 on 25 October 2022 satisfied that entitlement, so the holiday pay claim was dismissed. The claimant's breach of contract claim for notice pay was withdrawn, the respondent's breach of contract counterclaim was withdrawn, and the age discrimination claim was also withdrawn.