Dr E Stockton v East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust — 2023

The tribunal found that the claimant, a locum bank doctor, was a worker of the respondent throughout the period from 16 September 2020 to 4 August 2022 under an overarching arrangement, not only during individual shifts. It held that the arrangement to work on the bank register, read together with the individual assignments, was sufficient to satisfy the statutory definition of worker status, and that there was no need for an irreducible minimum obligation for worker status to exist.

On that basis, the tribunal held that on termination of the engagement the claimant was entitled to payment for accrued but untaken statutory leave. It rejected the respondent's argument that any rolled-up holiday pay could be credited against that entitlement. For the period before 20 August 2021, there was no sufficient reference to holiday pay in any agreement or payslip. For the later period, although the engagement letter and rates document referred to statutory holiday entitlement, the tribunal found the documentation too unclear to satisfy the requirements discussed in Robinson-Steele.

The tribunal also held that the claimant could pursue the matter as a claim for unlawful deductions from wages under section 13 ERA 1996 because there was a series of deductions continuing through the engagement. The gap between June and August 2021 did not break the series, particularly as the umbrella contract continued during that period. However, recovery was limited by the statutory two-year backstop, so losses earlier than two years before presentation of the claim on 22 December 2022 were out of time. A separate remedy hearing was directed to calculate any sum due.