The appellant company appealed against an employment tribunal's decision that there had been an unlawful deduction from the wages of the respondent employees. The respondents had claimed that they were contractually entitled to receive an "electrician's travel time allowance" (ETTA).

The respondents were electricians working for a service team previously employed by Birmingham City Council. When employed by Birmingham City Council, they were paid an ETTA which had been created in 1958 under a collective agreement to compensate for loss of opportunity to gain productivity bonuses when required to travel between depots and for costs incurred from having to travel. There had been attempts to stop these payments but they continued until 2008 by which time the claimants were