Jason Elliott was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 2013 and is the Associate Head of School of Law at Ulster University. As a practising barrister, he has developed a largely civil practice representing individuals, companies and public bodies in litigation. This covers a wide range of areas including personal injuries, wills and employment law. In terms of employment law, he has represented both applicants and respondents in the Industrial Tribunal. At Ulster University, Jason lectures extensively on the civil areas of practise such as Equity and Trusts and delivers employment law lectures for both undergraduate and postgraduate students.
The refusal of the Education Authority to permit a further increment on the leadership scale in a school was within its powers and the Tribunal could not question the reasonableness of that decision.
The claimant is the Principal of Ballyoran Primary School having been in that position since September 2008. The school was ‘grouped’ as ‘Upper Group 2’ meaning that it had leadership scale points of L15-L21. The claimant was on L21 at the time of the dispute. The school’s census in 2024 outlined 274 pupils which kept it in Upper Group 2.
The Board of Governors sought to award a one-point progression to the claimant from L21 to L22 citing retention, performance, affordability and differential. A business case was submitted by the Board of Governors to the Education Authority in February 2021. The request was rejected in March 2021 with the first respondent stating it did not meet the threshold of extremely exceptional circumstances.
The claimant brought a claim for unlawful deduction of wages as a result of the refusal citing a loss of £26,377.66 of salary and pension contributions.
The Tribunal outlined that the evidence required the first respondent to approve as was demonstrated from the fact that the Board of Governors had to submit a business case. The Tribunal was satisfied that the Authority had provided a rationale for the refusal of the Governors’ strong recommendation of allowing the progression. The Tribunal accepted the Authority’s position that it was gated, discretionary and contingent. As a result, there was no jurisdiction to question the reasonableness or otherwise of such a decision. As a result, no unlawful deduction of wages claim had crystallised. As a result, the claim was dismissed.
This case rested on the authority of the Education Authority to approve exceptional requests to grant a greater spine point rather than it solely resting with the Board of Governors or merely being a rubber-stamping exercise on the part of the Education Authority. As a result, there was no deduction from the wages received.
NI Tribunal decisions are available on the OITFET website.
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