Law queries

Can you claim a pay increase if pay negotiations are under way when you leave work and are concluded later with a backdated increase?

Once a person has left work there is no entitlement to any increase agreed after the date of termination of employment, even if the increase itself is backdated. In a 1981 case the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that the amount payable by the employer on termination is the amount actually payable at the date in question. It does not include any amounts later agreed, even if they are backdated to a period when the employee had been working.

* More information: Leyland Vehicles v Ruston [1981] IRLR 19