(sitting alone) Mr K Bates v Amberstone Security Limited — 2021

Mr K Bates worked as a security guard for Amberstone Security Limited from 5 February to 11 May 2020. The tribunal found that he was issued the employment documents electronically on 5 February 2020, and accepted his evidence that Gordon Dixon told him at interview that annual leave accrued to 31 March 2020 could not then be taken because the site was short staffed, but would be carried over or paid in lieu. When the claimant later raised the holiday issue in May 2020, the respondent refused the request without further discussion.

The tribunal rejected the claim for the May 2020 Amazon productivity bonus. It found that Amazon had funded a £2 per hour bonus to encourage attendance at the Dundee site, but the arrangement with the respondent was that only employees who worked throughout the whole of a given month would be eligible for that month's bonus. Because the claimant resigned with immediate effect on 11 May 2020 and did not work the whole month, the bonus for his final four shifts was not payable for the purposes of section 27 ERA 1996, so the unlawful deduction claim failed.

The tribunal upheld the claim for deduction from wages relating to the claimant's failure to work notice. Although the claimant had not served his one-week contractual notice, the respondent led no evidence that it had actually incurred losses or extra costs equal to the 2.5 days' pay deducted on 15 June 2020. The tribunal therefore found the contractual clause did not authorise the deduction and held it unlawful under section 13 ERA 1996.

The tribunal also upheld the holiday pay claim. It found that the claimant had accrued 31.14 hours' holiday between 5 February and 31 March 2020, had been denied an effective opportunity to take that leave, and was therefore not defeated by regulation 13(9) of the Working Time Regulations 1998. The tribunal referred to Kreuziger v Land Berlin and Max-Planck-Gesellschaft v Shimizu, and also concluded that regulations 13(10) and (11) would in any event apply because of the effects of coronavirus on the respondent and the wider economy. The respondent was ordered to pay £271.54 in respect of holiday pay and £261.60 in respect of the unlawful deduction from wages, making a total award of £533.14 gross.