Dear Claudine,

I have been employed as a shop assistant for the last three 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.

Siobhan

Dear Siobhan,

Thank you very much for your e-mail. 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, it is fair and reasonable, an employee has been furnished with written notice of the amount of the deduction and an employee has consented in writing to the deduction being made. As you have no Contract of Employment, and you did not consent in writing to the deduction made, your employer was not permitted to make any deduction from your wages. 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. 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. Every employer is under a duty to furnish a Contract of Employment to an employee setting out their terms and conditions of employment. You can also complain to the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA) to investigate your claim. You are also eligible 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.

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

With every good wish.

Claudine