08 January 2019 
Caroline Jones, Employment tax director
Following the deduction of pay based on 1/260th of salary the issue of whether teachers should have strike pay withheld based on 1/365th was considered in the 2017 Supreme Court case (Hartley and others v King Edward VI College). There is a suggestion that institutions may be facing back claims for strike pay. These are likely to be small in value but could give rise to a number of claims, including for those who have left employment.
Given the nature of the payments HMRC has indicated that it is not intending to implement a “special arrangement” such as that in place for payment of back dated equal pay claims, where payments are treated as week 53 payments. Such an arrangement allowed payments to be made outside the normal RTI procedure and could include employees who had left before payments were made. HMRC is to issue guidance towards the end of January 2019 on how to deal with the strike pay claims.
