UK workers may be able to claim thousands of pounds in wages unfairly taken from their pay, following a landmark Supreme Court ruling.
The ruling concluded employees can now recoup any incorrect payments they have ever received from employers as a major barrier has been removed.
Previously, if you’d been underpaid you could only make a claim at an employment tribunal for the most recent underpayment.
While this could also include similar underpayments on previous occasions, if there was more than a three-month gap between the payment errors, the most recent underpayment was the only one that could be investigated and repaid.
Trade union Unison said employers had been effectively “gaming the system” which meant workers weren’t able to challenge ongoing linked underpayments in their wages.
The Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland and another v Agnew and other & Unison overruled holiday pay case law operating since 2015.
The facts of the case focused on holiday pay, where it will be applied most widely. However the ruling affects all other forms of payment too, Unison said.
‘The law has now been corrected’
Shantha David, Unison’s head of legal, said: “Unison’s intervention has ensured the law has now been corrected. The previous interpretation meant workers couldn’t get compensation where a series of similar underpayments had happened three or more months apart.
“The Supreme Court understood here that this could allow some employers to game the system by spacing out holiday payments over more than three months. For years, many workers have been denied unfairly the chance to have their legitimate claims heard. This judgment ensures they’ll get all the wages they’re rightfully owed.”
