Miss J Waters v Associated Veterinary Services Limited — 2026

Miss Waters was entitled to salary and car allowance for February 2025 and 3–6 March 2025, together with payment for four days of unused holiday. Associated Veterinary Services Limited withheld those sums after asserting that previously reimbursed expenses were unsubstantiated. The tribunal treated the complaints as breach-of-contract allegations because section 14(1)(b) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 excluded a section 13 unlawful-deduction claim concerning an overpayment of expenses.

Applying the contractual terms and the parties’ mileage agreement, the tribunal found that mileage reimbursement required a verifiable record of the journey and its business purpose but did not require fuel receipts. The September to December 2024 claims contained sufficient information. Most January 2025 claims did not identify specific clients and therefore did not meet the agreed condition, apart from the journey to the respondent’s office on 28 January. The respondent was justified in deducting £2,217.60 from net pay for the inadequately supported January mileage claims, but it had no proper justification for the larger deduction. After the permissible deduction, £505.11 remained payable for February and £916.63 for the final four working days and four days of unused holiday.

The tribunal rejected the claim for an additional day of holiday or time off in lieu for attending the PATS trade show on Sunday 29 September 2024. That entitlement arose in the previous leave year, and there was no evidence of an agreement allowing it to be carried beyond 31 December 2024. It also made no award for alleged consequential pension losses because Miss Waters retained the benefit of the £3,000 withdrawn and did not substantiate any fees, lost investment growth or other loss. The tribunal grossed up the two net-pay amounts to account for tax and National Insurance and awarded £1,849.38 in damages for breach of contract; the other complaints were dismissed.