Dear Claudine,

I have been employed as a shop assistant for the last two years. Last week my employer discovered that the till was short money at the end of the day. When I received my wages at the end of the week, they had been reduced by the amount of money missing. I am very upset that my employer deducted the shortage from my wages as another employee also worked on that till that day and the loss may have been her fault. I do not have a Contract of Employment and I never received a pay slip.

I would appreciate your advice.

Laura

Dear Laura,

Thank you very much for your letter. The Payment of Wages Act 1991 deals with the deduction of wages when an employer suffers a loss through the fault of an employee. An Employer is only permitted to make a deduction from an employee’s wages provided the employee’s contract allows such a deduction to be made. There is also a requirement that any deduction is fair and reasonable and the employee is entitled to have written notice of the amount of the deduction. In your case, as you have no Contract of Employment, your employer was not permitted to make any deduction from your wages. Furthermore, as you did not receive written notice of the deduction, and no proper investigation was carried out to determine who was responsible for the loss, the deduction would be regarded as unlawful and in breach of the Payment of Wages Act 1991. As an Employee you are entitled to request that the amount deducted from your wages be returned to you. If you are not satisfied with your employers response, you can bring a complaint about the deduction to a Rights Commissioner. You can make an application to the Employment Appeals Tribunal and generally you have six months from the date of the loss suffered by you, being the date you realised a deduction had been made from your wages. You are also entitled to receive a pay slip which is a written statement of your wages with the details of any deductions to be made. You should also request this from your employer. Every employer is under a duty to furnish a Contract of Employment to an employee setting out their terms and conditions of employment. If, despite your request, your employer fails to provide you with a written statement of terms and conditions and a pay slip, you can also complain to the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA) to investigate your claim. An Inspector will be appointed who has the power to enter the place of work and examine records. The inspector will not reveal whether their inspection is being carried out as a result of a complaint from an employee or whether it is simply a routine inspection without first obtaining the consent of the employee making the complaint. You are also able to refer a dispute to a Rights Commissioner under the National Minimum Wage Act 2000. But this complaint can only be made by you provided that you have already requested a written statement from your employer outlining the manner in which your hourly average pay is calculated. You are obliged to refer to your claim within six months of receiving the statement from your employer. This period may be extended by the Rights Commissioner to 12 months in particular circumstances. If your employer does not provide you with a written statement, then the time limit starts from the date your employer should have provided you with the statement which is generally four weeks from the date of your request. You are entitled to choose which course of action you want to pursue, but you are not permitted to complain to the NERA and the Rights Commissioner to resolve your dispute. An employer who fails to furnish you with a pay slip, or provides one that is deliberately untrue, is guilty of an offence under the Payment of Wages 1991 and may be fined. Complaints about payslips should be made to the NERA. Complaints about unauthorised deductions from wages under the Payment of Wages Act 1991 should be made to a Rights Commissioner and brought within six months from the date of the deduction.

Thank you very much for your letter and I hope that the above information is helpful to you.

With every good wish.

Claudine