Alliance Healthcare Management Services Ltd

Case Summary

LGV drivers claimed unlawful deduction of wages for overtime, alleging they were contractually entitled to enhanced pay for hours exceeding their daily prescribed hours under the Staff Handbook. The Employment Tribunal found the Staff Handbook expressly excluded drivers and directed them to the Drivers' Handbook, which prescribed 48-hour weekly overtime thresholds. The EAT upheld this interpretation as correct and rejected the claimants' appeal.

The tribunal correctly interpreted the Staff Handbook as excluding drivers from its overtime provisions and directing them to the Drivers' Handbook instead. The contractual documentation, including clause 6 of the employment contracts and the Staff Handbook's explicit direction, established that overtime for drivers was calculated on a weekly basis (exceeding 48 hours per week) rather than on a daily basis as claimed.

• •Whether the Staff Handbook 2017 entitled claimants to overtime pay upon exceeding prescribed basic daily hours
• •Whether drivers were excluded from overtime provisions in the Staff Handbook
• •Interpretation of the direction to drivers to refer to the Drivers' Handbook for details of overtime payments
• •Whether the tribunal was required to determine the effect of provisions in the Drivers' Handbook
• •Scope of the pleaded case and agreed list of issues

Judgment approved by the court for handing down Harper v Alliance Healthcare Management Services © EAT 2026 Page 1 [2026] EAT 55 Neutral Citation Number: [2026] EAT 55 Case No: EA-2024-000727-RS EMPLOYMENT APPEAL TRIBUNAL Rolls Building Fetter Lane, London, EC4A 1NL Date: 17 April 2026 Before : HIS HONOUR JUDGE AUERBACH - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Between : MR A HARPER AND OTHERS Appellants - and – ALLIANCE HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT SERVICES LTD Respondent - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Laurène Veale (instructed by Thompsons Solicitors LLP) for the Appellant Jesse Crozier (instructed by Lewis Silkin LLP) for the Respondent Hearing date: 10 February 2026 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - JUDGMENT Judgment approved by the court for handing down Harper v Alliance Healthcare Management Services © EAT 2026 Page 2 [2026] EAT 55 SUMMARY UNLAWFUL DEDUCTION FROM WAGES The claimants in the employment tribunal are LGV drivers. The respondent paid them overtime in respect of hours worked in excess of 48 hours in any given week. They claimed that they were “entitled to be paid at an enhanced rate of pay for working hours that exceed their contractually prescribed daily hours.” They contended that this contractual entitlement was found in the Staff Handbook. The tribunal found that the Staff Handbook did not confer such a right on the claimants, because it contained a provision which excluded drivers from its substantive provisions relating to overtime. The tribunal did not err in that interpretation of the Staff Handbook. Nor did the tribunal err by failing to determine the position in relation to the provisions relating to overtime contained in a different document, the Drivers’ Handbook. It correctly identified the scope of what it had to decide by reference to t…