Please sign in with your existing account details.
Register to access exclusive content, sign up to receive our updates and personalise your experience on brownejacobson.com.
Privacy statement - Terms and conditions
Forgotten your password?
You have exceeded the maximum number of login attempts for this email address and your account has been locked. An email has been sent to member of Browne Jacobson's web team and some one will be contacting you over the next two working days with details of how to change your password.
Are you sure you want to remove this item from you pinned content?
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has given judgment in the case of Lock & ors v British Gas Trading Limited, which looked at whether an employee’s holiday pay should take into account commission earned where pay is in part commission based. A considerable portion of Mr Lock’s wages (about 60%) were made up of sales commission. As a result, he would receive holiday pay based on his basic wage only, which was argued as being a considerable disincentive to take leave. In addition, his commission payments in following months would also be lower because he had been unable to generate sales while on holidays.
Having considered whether there was a conflict between domestic and European law, the EAT confirmed that commission payments should be taken into account when calculating the four weeks’ annual leave provided for by the EU Working Time Directive (as the further 1.6 weeks leave making up the statutory minimum leave entitlement is granted by our domestic legislation). This judgment is in line with the earlier case of Bear Scotland v Fulton which confirmed that non-guaranteed overtime should be taken into account when calculating holiday pay.
Unfortunately, this case hasn’t provided the much needed clarification employers will have wanted. An appeal is already pending on Bear Scotland and we are yet to see whether a similar appeal will be lodged in this case. Even if the case is not taken further, the judgment failed to clarify what would be an appropriate reference period for averaging pay when calculating holiday pay.
Following an MP debate on 5 November 2019, the government is due to release long-awaited guidance as to how it intends to protect workers in the retail industry against violence, harassment and abuse.
View blog
In one of the first group equal pay claims in the private sector, the Employment Tribunal has determined that over 7,000 ASDA store workers (predominantly female) are able to compare themselves to distribution workers (predominantly male).
The long awaited judgment from the Court of Appeal (CA) in the case of British Gas Trading Limited v Lock & ors has now been published.
The claimant was working in an environment which tested on animals. The respondent had been subject to attention from animal rights activists in the past and the claimant had been acting unusually
Senior Associate
Select which mailings you would like to receive from us.
Sign up