Mr A Leyland & Others v Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust — 2020

The claimants, employees at Rampton Secure Hospital, alleged that the respondent made unauthorised deductions from wages by ceasing to pay High Security Allowance on overtime hours. The tribunal found that the dispute turned on the proper interpretation of collective agreements made in 2011 and 2014 and incorporated into the claimants’ contracts.

The tribunal held that the 2011 collective agreement protected only the annual lump-sum allowance and did not protect payment of High Security Allowance on overtime. The judge found that the 2011 negotiations, letters and briefing materials were confined to changes to the annual allowance and were intentionally silent on overtime because overtime payments were not then being changed. The respondent’s pay protection policy, which excluded non-contractual overtime, was found to underpin the protection arrangements.

The tribunal further held that the 2014 collective agreement expressly removed payment of High Security Allowance on overtime while maintaining protection for the annual allowance and unsocial hours payments. Accordingly, from January 2015 the overtime element was not wages properly payable, so the unlawful deduction claim failed. The judge also stated that, if necessary, she would have found that the claimants had affirmed the reduction by continuing to work without protest for over two years before the letter before action in March 2017.