Employment

The words “properly payable” in s 13(3) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 referred to a legal, but not necessarily a contractual, entitlement on the part of the employee to the payment. Consideration of whether there was a sum legally payable in accordance with s 13(3) of the Act was an exercise which had to be completed before s 13(1) and (2) of the Act could apply and it was only if the answer was in the affirmative that there had to be a consideration as to whether there was a deduction from that sum so as to invoke s 13(1) and (2). That conclusion was supported by the use of the word “deduction” in s 13(1) and (3) of the Act as that indicated a reduction of sums otherwise payable pursuant to the legal entitlement of the employee in question.