The following Employment Tax guidance note by Tolley in association with Sarah Bradford provides comprehensive and up to date tax information covering:
An employer has a duty to pay wages whenever an employee is ready and willing to work. It does not generally matter whether there is any work for them to do. They are still entitled to pay if they are unable to work through no fault of their own (eg because of a delay in receiving medical clearance or because there is no work for them to do), unless there is a specific contractual agreement entitling the employer to stop pay. Employees also have a right to be paid when they are unable to work because they are off sick or on maternity, paternity or adoption leave. Employees are also entitled to a certain number of days paid holiday a year (see the Sick pay, Maternity pay and Holiday pay guidance notes).
The case references mentioned in this guidance note are all subscription sensitive.
Where employees are unwilling to perform their contractual duties (eg as a form of industrial action), the employer is not obliged to let them work and, if it sends them home, it is not obliged to pay them.
The employer is however obliged to pay them if it accepts partial performance from the employee, whether or not the employee performs all of their contractual duties. However, the employer may be entitled to reduce the amount of pay to reflect the duties that have not been done, although quantifying the employer’s loss in this situation may be difficult.
There are three common situations in which an employee may receive pay when he does not work:
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