Mr P Saunders v Veolia ES (UK) Ltd — 2023

The claimant claimed that he should have received an additional daily payment under clause 28 of the Way Forward Agreement for every day worked before May 2022, by virtue of holding and using a driver assessor qualification. The respondent's position was that the payment was due only when the claimant was required to fulfil the Driver Assessor/Trainer job description in Appendix B, and that this did not happen until May 2022.

The tribunal found that before May 2022 the claimant carried out driver assessments only on an ad hoc basis and did not fulfil the whole Appendix B job description, particularly the elements concerning development of tools, processes, and training initiatives. It accepted the respondent's evidence that those elements were not required of the claimant before May 2022 because another supervisor was responsible for them, and that the respondent's requirements changed when a resourcing gap arose.

Interpreting clause 28 as a whole, the tribunal concluded that the claimant had to take on responsibility for the Appendix B job description, be willing and able to undertake the required training, and be required to carry out the duties in that job description. Because those requirements were not satisfied before May 2022, the additional pay was not properly payable for that period, and the unlawful deduction from wages claim was dismissed.