Unlawful deductions

Case 10: The facts

Print technicians Robert Kershaw and Barry Whitmore worked a shift rota of four days on and four days off, with a shift cycle being completed over an eight-week period. Calculating their average hours over the eight-week cycle, they claimed that they were working more than their contractual hours under the collective agreement and that they should be entitled to overtime for the extra hours in the normal shift cycle.

The ruling

The EAT held that it was incorrect to calculate the average hours over the eight-week cycle, as this did not give an accurate picture - in some cycles they worked over the average, and in some they worked under. A system that took account of the "overs" but not the "unders" was inherently unfair, and it was not the intention to pay overtime for a normal shift.

The EAT noted that holidays and salaries were averaged over a whole year, and held that the basic contractual week should be calculated over a long-enough period, such as a year, to enable the true pattern of the shift rota to be ascertained.

Mirror Colour Print v Kershaw and Whitmore UKEAT/0154/04