Time limits on deductions

If a worker receives less wages than s/he is due, the time limit for bringing a claim runs from the date the payment is made.

The facts

Mr Arora received his final salary payment about six weeks after his employment ended, but it contained less overtime than he believed he was owed. He issued a claim for unlawful deduction of wages within three months of the date he was paid, but more than three months after his employment had ended.

A tribunal dismissed his claim as being out of time, saying that the payment for overtime became payable on the date his employment ended so that was when the three-month time limit began to run.

The ruling

The Employment Appeal Tribunal held that, in the case of a deduction or shortfall, a claim must be brought within three months of the date of the payment from which the deduction was made. If no payment is received at all, there is no date of payment, in which case the time limit runs from the date that the payment was contractually due.

Since Arora’s employer had made a payment, the time limit ran from the date of that payment and not from the end of the employment.

Arora v Rockwell Automation Ltd UKEAT/0097/06