Mr P Young v Driver Hire (Romford) — 2020

Mr P Young worked for Driver Hire (Romford) as a driver from 14 July 2017. The tribunal found that the Respondent's Terms of Engagement said leave accrued from the start of an assignment and could not be carried forward, but the Respondent did not draw clause 5.2 or the loss-of-leave consequence to the Claimant's attention and did not discuss holiday entitlement with him during his first year. The Claimant later requested another copy of the terms in July 2018, after he had likely become aware of the right to paid annual leave, and he was able to take leave from October 2018 onwards.

Applying King and Max-Planck, the tribunal held that the Respondent had not exercised due diligence or actively facilitated the taking of leave. It accepted that the Claimant was not told, in good time, that first-year leave would be lost, and that the Respondent's notice requirement meant he could not realistically have given the required notice and taken the first-year leave before it expired even if he had learned of the right in July 2018.

The tribunal therefore upheld the complaints that the Respondent refused to permit the Claimant the statutory right to annual leave and failed to pay him in lieu of entitlement to annual leave. For remedy, it adopted the Respondent's calculation and ordered payment of £788.62 gross for the untaken leave accrued in the Claimant's first year of employment, noting that part of the calculation reflected hours paid at £7.50 and some March 2018 hours at £7.83, although the exact split was not provided.