Mr C Riley Mr P Whitby Mr P Jones Mr B Irvine v G4S Secure Solutions (UK) Limited — 2021

The tribunal determined a reference under sections 11 and 12 Employment Rights Act 1996 about the accuracy of the claimants' written particulars of employment as to holiday entitlement. The respondent's position was that entitlement was calculated under the Working Time Regulations and amounted to about 19.6 days for the claimants' 4 on 4 off, 12 hour shift pattern, rounded up in practice to 23 days. The claimants said their agreed entitlement was 28 days per year, with a day being a 12 hour shift.

For Mr Whitby, the tribunal found that from 2010 until December 2019 he had been allowed to take 28 days' leave per year and that this practice had been inherited and continued by the respondent after a TUPE transfer. It concluded that this was an implied term by custom and practice, so the written particulars were inaccurate and should record 28 days' holiday leave per annum, a day being a 12 hour shift.

For Mr Riley, Mr Jones and Mr Irvine, the tribunal accepted their evidence that they had been told during recruitment that their holiday entitlement would be 28 days, and found that this verbal offer, together with the practice of giving staff 28 days' leave, amounted to an express contractual term. Their written particulars were therefore inaccurate insofar as they stated holiday leave was to be calculated in accordance with the Working Time Regulations. The tribunal listed a further hearing to consider Mr Whitby's unlawful deduction from wages claim and any Regulation 30 Working Time Regulations claim.