In March 1988 the employers, the bus company, York City and District Travel Limited negotiated an agreement with the trade union varying their employees contracts of employment so as to provide that the employers were entitled to deduct any cash shortages from the wages of staff handling cash. On the 10th June 1988 minutes of the Union Committee Meeting recorded receipt of the agreement and that it would be duly signed. On the 9th September an agreement in identical form was signed by the Union and the employers. Between the 10th June and the 9th September, namely, on the 9th August 1988 Mr Smith, who was the Applicant, and was employed as a Travel Office Clerk, was found to have been responsible for takings which were missing. The EAT was asked to consider the phrase ‘any relevant provision of the worker’s contract and Section 1(1)(a) and it looked at a clause in the collective agreement with the Trade Union.
Held: When looking at Section 1(4) of the 1986 Act was that any variation under Section 1(4)(a) must come into effect before the conduct of the worker or other event occurring: ‘It is clear – indeed not argued to the contrary – that by section 1(3)(b) a variation of the original contract of employment may be oral, but that any such variation must be notified to the employee in writing prior to the date of the deduction. That is not the end of the matter because by section 1(4) the variation must have been agreed before the conduct or event on account of which the deduction is made. Thus to apply those principles to the present case the variation must have been agreed before 9 August and the notification in writing of the variation must have been given to the employee by the employers before 8 December 1988.’
Citations:
[1990] ICR 344
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Discount Tobacco and Confectionary Ltd v Williamson EAT 12-Jan-1993
The company appealed against a finding that they had made an unlawful deduction from the claimant’s salary. He was manager of a store where there had been shortfalls of stock, and had deducted part of its value from his salary on dismissing him. . .
Cited – Science Warehouse Ltd v Mills EAT 9-Oct-2015
EAT Practice and Procedure : Amendment – Amendment of an ET claim to add a new cause of action – ACAS Early Conciliation (Section 18A Employment Tribunals Act 1996 (as amended))
At a Preliminary Hearing, . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Employment
Updated: 16 May 2022; Ref: scu.614930