O Thompson v Am-R-Az LLP t/a Bluebird Care (Northampton & Daventry) — 2021

The claimant brought claims for unlawful deductions from wages, unpaid holiday pay, and failure to provide an itemised pay statement. The tribunal accepted the claimant’s account that she was not given a copy of her contract on 22 October 2019, and found it more likely than not that the respondent handed her the contract to sign, took it back, and did not give her a copy at that stage. It treated the later sending of clause 12 on 6 November 2019 as too late to satisfy section 13 ERA 1996 before the deduction/non-payment date.

On construction of the contract, the tribunal held that clause 12 provided for a charge of up to two weeks’ wages to be levied where a live-in employee left an assignment without approval, but that clause 12 by itself did not authorise a wage deduction. It said clause 6 was the operative deduction clause, but that clause had not been properly notified to the claimant before the deduction was made. The tribunal therefore found the £1,500 deduction unlawful and said it did not need to decide the penalty or mitigation arguments for the purpose of that conclusion.

The tribunal also found that the claimant’s contract started on 22 October 2019 and that she was owed £161 in unpaid holiday pay. On the amended payslip item, it found the failure to provide itemised pay statements was well founded under sections 8 to 12 ERA 1996, but declined to make a separate award under section 12(4) because it had already upheld the unlawful deduction claim. The final award was £1,661, comprising £1,500 for the unlawful deduction and £161 for holiday pay.