A Kemp (sitting alone) Miss L Johnson v Lloyds Register — 2017

Miss L Johnson began employment with Senergy Resources Limited on 11 January 2016 as an HSEQ Engineer. Her salary was reduced from £78,000 to £70,200 under a temporary variation agreed in June 2017, and on 1 July 2017 she accepted a revised contract referring to LR policies and procedures. The tribunal found that when the business later transferred to Senergy Wells Ltd on 27 October 2017, the terms and conditions were unchanged. It also found that the Claimant worked at Chryasor from November 2017, resigned on 20 July 2018, and left employment on 20 October 2018.

On the bonus claim, the tribunal found that the 2017/18 Colleague Incentive Plan rules were communicated through Re:Connect, the intranet and HR, and that the scheme included a rule excluding employees who gave notice before 1 November 2018. The Claimant had completed her PPP form and had been scored 4:4, but she resigned before the relevant cut-off date and had not checked the scheme rules before resigning. Applying New Century Cleaning Co Ltd v Church, the tribunal held that there was no legal entitlement to the bonus and dismissed that part of the claim.

On overtime, the tribunal held that the contract required the Claimant to work additional hours as necessary without further remuneration, and that the overtime guidelines also required prior written approval from a line manager, which she did not have. The emails from Mr Robb about recording eight hours were found to concern client invoicing rather than a contractual promise to pay overtime. On the compressed working week point, the tribunal held that the policy did not guarantee Friday afternoons off where client requirements or billable work took precedence; it also held that any breach had been acquiesced in because the point was not raised until June 2018. The tribunal referred to W E Cox Toner (International) Ltd v Crook on affirmation, and concluded that there was no breach of contract and no unlawful deduction from wages. It therefore dismissed the claim in full.