1. Mrs D Bogusiewicz 2. Mrs A Tomczyk v The General Green Company — 2020

Mrs D Bogusiewicz and Mrs A Tomczyk were employed by The General Green Company as cleaners. They brought claims in July 2019 for breach of contract and unlawful deduction from wages, saying their pay should have included mileage and vehicle maintenance costs, payment for time spent collecting colleagues, and payment for travel time between customers' houses. The first claimant also pursued a holiday pay point, but that was withdrawn after the respondent corrected the calculation.

On the breach of contract claims, the tribunal found that neither contract contained any term entitling either claimant to reimbursement of mileage or maintenance costs. It accepted the respondent's evidence that the higher hourly rates paid to the claimants, £9.00 for the first claimant and £8.50 for the second claimant, were intended to compensate them for those costs. It also noted that both claimants were paid above the National Minimum Wage, and it dismissed both breach claims.

On the unlawful deduction claims, the tribunal found that the claimants were required to transport colleagues to customer houses and that the time spent doing so was wages properly payable. It also found that the claimants had a legal entitlement to pay for travel time between customers' houses. The respondent had already accepted that entitlement in relation to the first claimant and had paid her £297.27 on 22 July 2019, but the tribunal held that the balance remained recoverable and that the first claimant's series-of-deductions claim was in time under Poupart Limited v Hounsell & Others EAT 712/01. It awarded £2,931.58 gross to the first claimant and £2,473.50 gross to the second claimant.