The claimant was employed by the respondent; initially as a grocery store manager. The claimant’s written terms of employment made no provision for pay rises or bonus payments but he did receive pay rises during each year of his employment up until 2010. On 9 September 2014 he indicated that he had been offered and accepted another job and would formalise his four weeks’ notice in writing. 

Whilst the tribunal accepted that conversations took place which discussed possible staff pay rises around August 2014, crucially there were no formal written agreements. Additionally, the respondent’s evidence was that it was practice not to award pay rises to staff that it was aware were leaving. 

The claimant complained that he had suffered an unlawful deduction from wages following his notice of his resignation after which the respondent gave all its managers a backdated pay rise but excluded the claimant despite him still being employed at that time. The claim for unlawful deduction from wages was dismissed.

PRACTICAL LESSONS

This case distinguishes an ‘expectation’ of a pay rise from a ‘legal entitlement’ to one and may be of note to employers who froze any pay increases during difficult trading conditions during the recession. This decision reflects the reality that there would need to be some clear legal obligation to provide a pay increase, but mere conversations and intimations are surely far from satisfying that hurdle. Furthermore, the tribunal acknowledged the respondent’s practice of not awarding award pay rises to employees whom it was aware were leaving was ratified by directors/ shareholders of the company, which gave further weight to their position.