Mrs K Kaur v Travelodge Hotels Ltd — 2019

The claimant had been paid company sick pay for a period of absence after annual leave in India, but the respondent later deducted £760.67 from her December 2018 pay. That sum represented £880.20 company sick pay less £73.64 statutory sick pay. The tribunal considered whether the respondent was entitled to recover the company sick pay as an overpayment.

The tribunal found that the contracts and sickness absence policy allowed the respondent to withhold company sick pay where it was not satisfied that the absence was genuinely due to sickness, and to recover overpayments by deductions from pay. Although the claimant had provided medical evidence, the respondent had asked for flight evidence to support that she had originally intended to return on 7 November 2018. The claimant did not provide satisfactory evidence of the original return flight arrangements.

The tribunal concluded that the respondent had reasonable grounds to be suspicious as to the claimant's ill health and to decide that company sick pay should not be paid for the period. Because the payment had already been made in November, the respondent was entitled to treat it as an overpayment and recover it from December pay. The breach of contract claim was dismissed.