In person For the v Respondent — 2020

The claimant was employed by the respondent as an HGV/LGV driver and factory manual worker/brick cutter from 14 April 2019 until he resigned with immediate effect on 26 August 2019. He brought a claim for unlawful deduction from wages arising from a deduction of £150 from his July 2019 pay. The respondent accepted that the deduction had been made, but said it was made because the claimant had taken a DAF truck without permission on 6 July 2019 and the respondent had received a £500 PCN, which it said had been agreed would be repaid in instalments. The tribunal set out section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and considered whether the deduction was authorised by contract or had been agreed to in writing.

The tribunal found that the version of the contract relied on by the respondent at the hearing had been falsified, and that the true contract contained the words "and in writing" in the deduction clause. It accepted that the claimant's copy of the contract, shown during the hearing, displayed the respondent's logo, the claimant's signature, and those words. It also noted that the claimant's case was that he had not been informed of the deduction at all, that he required a Russian interpreter, and that it was unlikely he would have known how to amend the contract.

On that basis, the tribunal held that advance written notification was an essential part of the contractual procedure for deductions. The deduction was therefore not authorised by a relevant contractual provision under section 13(1)(a) ERA 1996, and the claimant had not signified written agreement or consent under section 13(1)(b) ERA 1996. The claim for unlawful deduction from wages succeeded in the sum of £150.