Louise Currie v Monarch Transport Ltd — 2021

Louise Currie and Conner Regan brought claims that Monarch Transport Ltd had made unauthorised deductions from wages by failing to pay their contractual bonus. The tribunal heard evidence from both claimants and from Derek Anderson for the respondent. It found that the claimants' original contracts linked their bonus arrangements, that the parties had later agreed verbal variations to the timing of bonus payments in 2019, and that Miss Currie's salary was also increased in August 2019 to cover additional home-working costs.

The tribunal accepted the respondent's evidence that in January 2020 it proposed a new bonus structure, set out in John Weir's email of 9 January 2020, and that the claimants agreed to that variation at a meeting on or around 22 January 2020. It found that the parties' dealings had consistently involved verbal agreement without written amendment, and it treated the absence of written confirmation as consistent with the way the contracts had previously been varied. On that basis, the tribunal held that the 2020 bonus terms in the email were binding.

The tribunal also accepted the respondent's account of the June 2020 payment. It found that the payment was calculated by applying the new 2020 bonus formula to business closed to date, but without applying the tariff or deducting credits, and that this concession was made because of the claimants' financial difficulties. It accepted the respondent's final-year calculations showing that the joint bonus for the relevant period was £2,512, so that the £2,538 paid in June 2020 met the respondent's contractual obligation in full and there was an overpayment of £26.

The tribunal rejected the claimants' case that the original bonus terms still applied in 2020 and that the June 2020 payment represented only part of what was due under those earlier terms. It also rejected the suggestion that the respondent's position had repeatedly changed in the way alleged. Applying section 13 and section 27(1)(a) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, the tribunal concluded that there had been no unauthorised deduction from wages and dismissed the claims.