Mr D Asprey v McGeoch Technology Limited — 2025

Mr D Asprey was employed by McGeoch Technology Limited from 2 January 2020, initially as Head of Operations and then, from 18 October 2021, as Operations Director. His contract provided 25 days' paid holiday, stated that unused leave could not be carried forward without written consent, and also provided for a £7,200 car allowance and a 6% pension contribution. The tribunal found that Mr D'Ambrogio had permitted the claimant to carry forward leave from 2020 and that, by November 2022, the claimant was one of four employees who could manage his own leave without being required to use it by the end of quarter 1 of 2023.

After the claimant resigned on 23 February 2024, the tribunal found that the parties agreed he would not take all of his leave before termination in order to complete a handover, and that outstanding holiday would be paid on termination. It rejected the respondent's account that there had been no such agreement and found that the email of 31 May 2024 reflected an agreed arrangement: the last working day would be 07 June 2024, leave would be used for the remainder of June, and 15.5 days of carried-over holiday would be paid in lieu. On that basis, the tribunal found the effective date of termination remained 28 June 2024 and that the agreement did not unlawfully contract out of the Working Time Regulations 1998, because the claimant was entitled to rely on the more favourable contractual provision.

The holiday pay claim therefore succeeded and the tribunal awarded £6,092.74, using a daily rate of £393.08 from the 28 June 2024 payslip. The claim for unauthorised deductions from wages also succeeded: because the respondent had treated 07 June 2024 as the termination date, the claimant was left without the car allowance and pension contributions due for the last three weeks of June. The tribunal rejected the claimant's unsupported pension figure of £124.36 and instead calculated the outstanding pension contribution at £248.87, with car allowance of £465.25, making £714.12 in total. The total damages awarded were £6,806.86.