In person For the v Mr T Sheppard — 2019

Mrs Karim had worked for Debenhams Retail Limited since 26 October 2005. Her contract changed on 2 December 2012 to a Peak Hour Contract, which the Tribunal treated as effectively a zero-hours arrangement. The claimant said she did not understand that she retained an entitlement to annual leave under that contract and did not ask for holiday or holiday pay until November 2018, after a colleague told her she was entitled to it.

The Tribunal accepted that the respondent had not shown that the claimant received or signed the Peak Hour contract documents, and found that she was unaware of her entitlement because of the failure of management to ensure that she received the contractual documentation and understood how holiday entitlement worked. It also accepted that line managers had responsibility for monitoring and explaining holiday entitlement, and that this may not have been done thoroughly. The respondent made an ex gratia payment of £919.88 on 21 December 2018, which the Tribunal found related to holiday pay for the 18 months before the issue was raised.

Applying section 13 and section 23 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, the Tribunal held that holiday pay could be brought as an unlawful deduction of wages claim but that the Deduction from Wages (Limitation) Regulations 2014 limited recovery to the two years before the claim was presented on 25 February 2019. On that basis, the claimant could not recover holiday pay before 25 February 2017, but remained entitled to claim unpaid holiday pay for 25 February 2017 to 29 May 2017, after taking account of the respondent's payment. The Tribunal said it did not have enough information to calculate the amount for that period on a final basis and listed the matter for a remedy hearing.