The Employment Appeal Tribunal has found that a claimant who changed his status from general labourer to a labour-only subcontractor in exchange for £200 was still a “worker” under the Employment Rights Act and the Working Time Regulations and was therefore entitled to holiday pay.

An employee whose employer had clawed back overpaid wages claimed that his employers had not complied with the Employment Rights Act, which requires employers to give written and itemised pay statements. The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that deductions of an employee’s wages should have been properly itemised and explained on the employee’s payslip.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has ruled that an employee’s employment contract did not entitle her to annual pay increments subject to satisfactory performance, regardless of HR’s assurance during the recruitment process that the employee’s pay would increase in this way. On review of the clause, this was not its meaning and there was also an entire agreement clause in the contract, which meant that the employee could not rely on the prior discussions with HR.

The First Tier Tribunal has held that a payment to a retired employee to buy-out his right to participate in his former employer’s healthcare scheme did not qualify as either a payment for termination of employment (which would qualify for a £30,000 income tax exemption) or a capital gain. The payment was deemed to be a payment under an employer funded retirement benefit scheme and therefore was subject to income tax and national insurance contributions as employment income.