Employment tribunals do have jurisdiction to resolve disputes about the construction of an employment contract when looking at a claim for unauthorised deductions from wages.
In Agarwal v Cardiff University & Another, Ms Agarwal was a consultant urological surgeon at Cardiff University. Part of her salary was withheld because the University believed that she was not contractually entitled to it.
The employment tribunal and the Employment Appeal Tribunal both agreed that they did not have jurisdiction to determine the underlying contractual dispute. As a result, Agarwal took her case to the Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal upheld her claim. Referring to existing case law, the judge found that, for the tribunal to determine whether there was a deduction of wages, it had to resolve the meaning of the contract and any underlying contractual dispute.
In an article for Lexology, DAC Beachcroft explained what the case means for employers: “This case clears up confusion about the tribunal’s jurisdiction in claims of unlawful deductions from wages, and is a sensible result.
“It would be unworkable if tribunals were not able to determine the terms of the contract when trying to ascertain if a sum was properly payable.”
