Bus form's deduction from pay "unlawful"

The T&G transport union has won an important victory against a Bournemouth bus company, Yellow Buses, whose contract terms required its bus drivers to make up any shortfall in cash takings on the buses, even if they had occurred as a result of a theft.

When the company deducted £52 from the pay of a driver who had suffered a theft on a bus, the T&G took a tribunal case against the company under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977. The tribunal ruled that the term in the drivers' contract that permitted these deductions was contrary to Act because, even though it was "custom and practice" to make such deductions in the Yellow Bus company contract, over the years the company had used its discretion not to make deductions when shortages were as a result of theft. The fact that it had not done so on this occasion meant that it could be challenged using the 1977 Act.

Until recently this legislation had rarely been used in employment law cases, but unions have begun to see that it can be effective because it allows the courts to declare certain contract terms unenforceable. T&G regional organiser Terry Millen said the case had "enormous significance" in the transport industry where bus companies routinely threaten these types of deductions. Yellow Bus is now negotiating with Millen "to agree new words for the contracts of employment which take into account this ruling."