Mr A Kirby v Playfix Limited — 2022

Mr Kirby was employed by Playfix Limited as a Business Operations Manager from 1 October 2020 to 10 November 2021. The tribunal accepted his evidence that, after he began using his own car for business travel, he and Mr Johnson agreed mileage would be reimbursed at 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles and 25p per mile thereafter. That agreement became an express term of the relationship, and the tribunal said mileage claims for journeys solely between home and the usual office were excluded from the calculation.

On commission, the tribunal applied ordinary contractual interpretation principles and held that the policy promising 5% of all new business attributable to Mr Kirby was not limited to business from new clients only. It relied on the wording of the commission policy, the absence of any express restriction to new clients, the contrast with a separate bonus policy that did use that language, and Mr Johnson's comment that Mr Kirby would have reached his first quarter target if he brought in £70,000 from TGOGC. On that basis, commission covered business attributable to him from existing clients as well as new clients.

The tribunal also held that commission remained payable after termination where entitlement had accrued during employment but payment was due later under the contractual timetable. It therefore upheld the breach of contract claim on both mileage and commission. The judgment did not quantify the final sums: it directed that mileage be calculated from the claimant's schedule of loss less home-to-office journeys, and that commission be calculated from the bundle figures less only the items specifically queried by the respondent, with a further hearing to be listed if the parties could not agree the figures.