Mr S Urie v WQS UK Ltd — 2023

Mr Urie was employed as a plumber’s mate from 1 May 2022 until 21 October 2022. The parties had a written contract signed on 30 May 2022, including a Deductions From Pay Agreement under which certain deductions could be made from final pay. After he left without notice, the respondent treated him as having resigned on 21 October 2022 and made deductions from his final salary for an advance of £650, a replacement van key, the cost of engineers attending to recover the van, mileage, and the cost of covering his work at Maryhill Housing Association.

The tribunal accepted the deductions for the £650 advance, £10.22 mileage, £210 for the engineers’ time recovering the van, and £393.75 for cover of his work. It found that clause 12 entitled the respondent to deduct the vehicle recovery cost, and that clause 9 entitled it to deduct the cost of replacement labour. The tribunal also accepted that the respondent’s evidence on the cover cost was fair and reasonable.

The tribunal did not accept the deduction of £280 for a replacement van key. It found that the claimant had spoken to the engineers when they attended, had offered his key to Mr Bruce on 26 October 2022, and later emailed on 7 November 2022 saying he still had the key and needed to return it. In those circumstances, the tribunal held that it was unfair to deduct £280 for the replacement key bought on 8 December 2022.

Although that £280 deduction was unauthorised, the tribunal found that the respondent was lawfully entitled to deduct £1,263.97 in total, which exceeded the net salary due to the claimant of £1,247.46. It therefore held that the unauthorised deduction made no practical difference to the outcome and no award was made.