Ms Z Blackledge v Anderton Enterprises Limited — 2020

Ms Blackledge brought a claim for pay in lieu of untaken annual leave said to arise on termination of her employment on 27 August 2019. At this hearing the tribunal was dealing with reconsideration of the earlier rejection of the respondent's response, and Employment Judge Holmes revoked that rejection and accepted the response out of time so that the respondent could participate in the proceedings.

The tribunal did not determine liability or remedy for the holiday pay claim. Instead, it postponed the substantive hearing to 5 June 2020 and listed the issues that would need to be decided then, including the relevant leave year under the Working Time Regulations, whether there was a relevant agreement under Reg. 2(1) fixing the leave year from 1 August to 31 July, whether unused leave could be carried over, and the correct daily rate for pay in lieu of annual leave.

The judgment records that the claimant had produced calculations based on the whole period of employment, allowing for a payment of £146 made by the respondent, and that her case was for about £661. The respondent said the leave year ran from 1 August to 31 July and that, if that was correct, the claimant had been paid, and possibly overpaid, for later leave entitlement.

The judge noted that the document relied on by the respondent, described as a Workplace Alcohol and Drugs Policy and signed by the claimant on 9 August 2019, appeared to be a policy rather than an agreement and may not satisfy the requirements of the Regulations. He also recorded that further evidence might be needed about the contractual arrangements and whether any variation of the leave-year terms had been agreed with the requisite notice.