Fahey v Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust [2012] UKEAT/0391/11/LA
Decision Number:
Published on: 25/05/2012
Issues Covered:
Article Authors The main content of this article was provided by the following authors.
Background This was an appeal against the decision of a Tribunal which dismissed a claim brought by Ms Wendy Fahey (“the Claimant”) against her former employers the Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust (“the Respondent”) for the unlawful deduction of wages.The Claimant was employed by the Respondent as a ward administrator and theatre coordinator. She was absent from work on the grounds of ill health from 24 July 2009 until her employment came to an end on 30 July 2010. For much of the time between those dates the Claimant was on sickness pay – first at full rate, then at half rate. When she was given notice, however, the Respondent reverted to paying her in full at her basic rate of pay.The Claimant claimed that unlawful deductions were made from her basic pay in both June and July 2010 which were unlawful. Her wages slips did indeed show that deductions were made in both June and July 2010. Before the Tribunal the Respondent said that it had made the deductions in respect of incapacity benefit. It was the Respondent‟s case that it was entitled to make this deduction; and that otherwise the Claimant would have been better off when sick than she would have been if she was working.The claimant appealed and this was upheld by the EAT. There was no evidence before the Tribunal of any contractual provision authorising the deductions and the Tribunal was not entitled to infer that there may have been such a provision on the say-so of witnesses or from the nature of correspondence given the contractual documentation produced to it.http://bit.ly/LxzeYr

Continue reading

We help hundreds of people like you understand how the latest changes in employment law impact your business.

Already a subscriber?

Please log in to view the full article.

What you'll get:

  • Help understand the ramifications of each important case from NI, GB and Europe
  • Ensure your organisation's policies and procedures are fully compliant with NI law
  • 24/7 access to all the content in the Legal Island Vault for research case law and HR issues
  • Receive free preliminary advice on workplace issues from the employment team

Already a subscriber? Log in now or start a free trial

Disclaimer The information in this article is provided as part of Legal Island's Employment Law Hub. We regret we are not able to respond to requests for specific legal or HR queries and recommend that professional advice is obtained before relying on information supplied anywhere within this article. This article is correct at 25/05/2012