Ms S Mueller First v Utopia Leisure Limited Second respondent: Peter Hinchcliffe Third respondent: Deborah Hinchcliffe Fourth respondent: Ian Heath — 2023

The tribunal heard Ms Mueller's claims arising from a 33% pay cut imposed from March 2020 during the Covid-19 shutdown. It found that Utopia Leisure Limited decided to apply different percentage reductions by salary band, with 20%, 25% and 33% bands, and that the claimant was told of a 33% reduction on 23 March 2020. The claimant continued working until she resigned on 9 December 2020, with her final working day on 8 January 2021.

On direct sex discrimination, the tribunal found Mr Jurca and Mr Perry were proper comparators because their roles were not separate hotel-manager and spa-manager posts in substance; the split was a paper distinction used for internal accounting. It rejected the respondents' explanation for giving them a 25% cut rather than the claimant's 33% cut, found the explanation lacked credibility, and held that the claimant had shown less favourable treatment because of sex. The equal pay claim also succeeded because the claimant's work and theirs was broadly similar like work and the material factor defence failed.

The breach of contract and unlawful deduction claims relating to the 33% pay cut failed because the tribunal found the claimant never objected, never told the respondent she was working under protest, and by continuing to work she acquiesced in the contractual variation. The holiday-pay claim was partially successful: the tribunal rejected pro rata bank-holiday treatment, accepted that five lieu days had accrued, and said the underpayment of holiday pay should be assessed by reference to the 25% comparator reduction rather than the 33% cut. Remedy was left to a later hearing and no final award was made in this judgment.