Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Case law

Reduction in pay unlawful

by Personnel Today 7 Nov 2000
by Personnel Today 7 Nov 2000

Davies & others v M J Wyatt (Decorators)`, IDS Brief 670, EAT

Davies was originally classed as self-employed by MJW and received no paid holidays, but this changed when he became an employee. MJW funded the paid holidays by setting up a "holiday scheme" whereby it deducted £20 a week from employees’ wages and, in turn, paid them £40 a day for 15 days’ holiday and eight public holidays.

In October 1998, the Working Time Regulations introduced the right to paid annual leave of 15 days. To fund this, MJW unilaterally reduced the hourly rate of pay by 30p in return for four weeks’ paid holidays. The subsequent claim for unauthorised deduction of wages was unsuccessful. The tribunal held that the reduced hourly rate was the sum "properly payable" to the men and the regulations effectively meant MJW was paying twice for holidays; firstly through its holiday scheme and secondly by giving paid annual leave.

The EAT held that the tribunal had erred in law. MJW could not unilaterally reduce pay without consent to fund its obligation to provide paid annual leave and ordered MJW to repay the deductions. Had both parties consented to a variation of the contract, the situation would have been different.


Knowledge of protected act required


Ledeatte v London Borough of Tower Hamlets, IRLB 649, EAT

In 1994, Ledeatte brought a race discrimination claim against the authority. In 1997 she brought a complaint of victimisation and relied on three incidents carried out by different individuals in the personnel department: she had been wrongly informed she could not carry forward holiday, she had returned from maternity leave to a different position, and no salary was paid while on sick leave.

The tribunal held that any one of the incidents could constitute victimisation but dismissed the claim because there was no evidence that any of the individuals knew of Ledeatte’s earlier race claim, the "protected act".

Ledeatte appealed, arguing that as the personnel manager was aware of the race claim, it could be inferred that the three individuals also knew of it and there was no need to prove they had actual knowledge.

The EAT accepted the authority’s submission that the perpetrators of the three acts complained of had to have actual knowledge of the protected act – the race claim – to establish the necessary causal link.

Personnel Today
Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
CBI conference – Prodi pledges end to EU bureaucracy
next post
Don’t be hit by the data protection time bomb

You may also like

Supreme Court: Holiday pay for part-year staff should...

20 Jul 2022

Maya Forstater wins belief discrimination case over gender-critical...

6 Jul 2022

Christian doctor loses transgender pronoun case, but beliefs...

29 Jun 2022

Long Covid: what tribunal’s disability ruling means for...

23 Jun 2022

Frewer v Google: How it’s getting harder to...

30 May 2022

School discriminated against Christian caretaker who tweeted against...

3 May 2022

Philosophical belief: barrister’s tribunal claim against Stonewall begins

26 Apr 2022

EAT hears David Mackereth’s appeal against trans pronouns...

29 Mar 2022

Trade union detriment: action short of dismissal is...

25 Mar 2022

Rail inspector with ‘shy bladder syndrome’ wins £90,000...

16 Mar 2022
  • 6 reasons why work-based learning is better than traditional training PROMOTED | A recent Fortune/Deloitte survey found that 71% of CEOs are anticipating that this year’s biggest business disrupter...Read more
  • Strengthening Scotland’s public services through virtual recruiting PROMOTED | This website is Scotland's go-to place for job seekers looking to apply for roles in public services...Read more
  • What’s next for L&D? Enter Alchemist… PROMOTED | It’s time to turn off the tedious and get ready for interactive and immersive learning experiences...Read more
  • Simple mistakes are blighting the onboarding experience PROMOTED | The onboarding of new hires is a company’s best chance...Read more
  • Preventing Burnout: How can HR help key workers get the right help? PROMOTED | Workplace wellbeing may seem a distant memory...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+