Mr J Allan v Adams Textiles — 2020

Mr J Allan worked for Adams Textiles as a sales assistant from 12 February 2018 until redundancy on 9 December 2019. The tribunal found the parties had a net-to-gross arrangement: the claimant was to receive £66 net per day, and the respondent was responsible for calculating and paying the tax. On that basis, the tribunal held that tax rebates and changes in tax levels generally belonged to the employer rather than amounting to deductions from wages payable to the claimant.

The holiday claim succeeded. The tribunal found the claimant's holiday entitlement was 28 days inclusive of bank holidays. It accepted that he had sufficient notice of the shop closures for bank holidays and the five Jewish holiday closures, so those days could be treated as holiday taken. The claimant was therefore entitled to 50.25 days' unpaid holiday, and the tribunal awarded £3,316.27.

On the tax rebate issue, the tribunal held that the claimant was not entitled to tax rebates arising during the employment under the net-to-gross arrangement, and his wider unlawful deduction allegations based on tax changes did not succeed. The exception was a rebate of £119.20 relating to a previous employment: the respondent was entitled to retain £68.40 for tax it had paid in the first two weeks of this employment, but had to pay the balance of £50.80. The respondent's counterclaim for £835.40 said to be overpaid wages was dismissed. The total award was £3,367.07.