Mr I Kirby v Lancaster University — 2021

Mr Kirby was a casual worker engaged through Lancaster University’s Employment Recruitment Service. The tribunal held that the University’s policy promise to pay for ad hoc work cancelled with less than 48 hours’ notice was incorporated into his terms of engagement. It also held that the March 2020 FAQ contained an explicit commitment to honour payment where casual staff had a reasonable expectation of work based on previous agreements or commitments, and that this commitment was apt for incorporation.

On that basis, the tribunal found that the University was obliged to pay him for the invigilation and senior invigilator training engagements booked for 17, 18 and 20 March 2020, and for 25 March 2020, all of which were cancelled because of Covid-19. It accepted that Mr Kirby could usually expect casual work during the academic year, but distinguished that expectation from work that had not yet been scheduled or agreed.

The wider furlough element of the claim failed. The tribunal held that the FAQ was directed to cancelled scheduled work, not to future work that might otherwise have been offered, and that it did not amount to a commitment that the University would place him on furlough for all work he might reasonably have expected to do. Although the tribunal accepted that he would have been eligible to be furloughed under the CJRS, it held that eligibility did not create a right to be furloughed. The June 2020 payment of £916.94 was treated as fully satisfying his entitlement for that month, and remedy for the successful cancelled-shifts element was left to be agreed or determined later.