Mr J Tuohy v Swissport GB Limited — 2023

The tribunal found that when the claimant accepted the temporary Station Planner role from 1 May 2021, he had not been told that the salary would reduce to £26,000. It rejected the respondent’s case that a letter confirming that reduction had been sent to him, and concluded that he accepted the temporary Planner role on the basis that his salary would remain at £33,584.62 for the duration of that fixed term.

On that basis, the tribunal held that for the period 1 January 2022 to 28 February 2022 the claimant should have been paid at the higher salary. The respondent’s reduction of his pay to the £26,000 rate created an unlawful deduction from wages. The tribunal calculated the shortfall as £1,134.10 gross, equivalent to £823.25 net, and ordered payment of that net sum.

The tribunal dismissed the claim for a statutory redundancy payment. It found that by the time of resignation the claimant was employed as a Planner, not in his earlier Service Delivery Manager role, and that the ending of the fixed-term Planner post did not amount to a redundancy situation because the respondent did not require fewer employees to carry out that work and in fact proposed to increase the number of Planner roles.