Guarantee Payments

Abercrombie and others v Aga Rangemaster Ltd UKEAT/0099/12

Where an employer fails to provide work for an employee who would normally be required to work in accordance with his contract of employment the employee is entitled to a statutory guaranteed payment. In this case, however, the employment tribunal found that the employees had agreed a temporary variation to their normal working hours which meant that they had ceased to work on Fridays for several months and this precluded them from being entitled to a guarantee payment.

The employees had voted in favour of a temporary reduction in working hours to avoid a redundancy exercise. Their working hours were compressed into four days. Aga declined to give them a guaranteed payment on the grounds that there had been an agreed variation of their working terms. Unfortunately for the employees the tribunal and EAT agreed.