A controller involved in running buses from London to Stansted Airport has been awarded more than £500 in unpaid wages after his employers admitted there may have been payment errors.
Les Green made a legal claim for the unlawful deduction of wages at East London Employment Tribunal against his former employers, Airport Bus Express.
Mr Green’s duties involved checking on drivers to ensure they were not sleeping on coaches and to ensure that resold tickets were not being used on the coaches.
His permanent position was based at Bishop’s Stortford, working nights on a 12-hour shift pattern for £12 an hour. But he told the Tribunal that he had not been paid his proper wage for September 2016 plus his holiday pay.
It was alleged that there had been errors over wage calculations and that sometimes Mr Green was overpaid and sometimes he was underpaid.
There had also been a dispute over work sheets, it was said.
Airport Bus Express opposed Mr Green’s legal claim and said he had been overpaid a total of £4,507 during his employment. As a result, the firm said it was entitled to withhold payments for the purpose of reimbursements.
The Tribunal was told later, however, that the overpayments may have been about £1,856 – “considerably lower than the previously quoted.”
After considering 489 pages of evidence, Tribunal Judge Charles Clarke decided that Mr Green had been underpaid by £574 and ordered the firm to pay him the amount.
Mr Green has since left Airport Bus Express.
