Leave to appeal was granted based on the question of whether the minimum wage is payable for all of a worker’s agreed contracted hours of work, in the absence of sickness, default or accident; or whether it was lawful to make deductions from wages for lost time not worked at the employer’s direction. On March 23, the day the Covid-19 level 4 lockdown was announced, the workers were employed by Gate on the minimum wage for a minimum 40-hour week. After the company partly shut down its operations during the lockdown, Gate did not need some employees to work. Gate agreed to pay those employees 80 per cent of their normal wages, provided it got the wage subsidy, which it did receive.