Unpaid wages

Q: We have learnt that our employer has not been paying workers at one site for their half-hour lunch breaks, to which they are entitled under our collective agreement. The company accepts its error and has agreed to pay from now on, but is refusing to repay what it owes for the previous 18 months. Can the workers claim the back pay?

A: You can pursue a claim as long as you can establish that the half-hour paid break is a contractual entitlement, which it seems that you can as the company accepts that it is part of the collective agreement.

If a worker receives less than his or her contractual entitlement, s/he can bring a claim for unlawful deduction of wages in an employment tribunal. The time limit for unlawful deduction claims is three months, but if there is a series of deductions (as there is here, with the workers underpaid every month), the time limit is three months from the last in the series of deductions and you can claim for the whole series.

Section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 gives the right not to suffer unlawful deductions; section 23 of the same act sets out the right to bring a tribunal claim and the time limits.

Alternatively, you could claim for breach of contract in the county court, for which the time limit is six years.