Employer to employee excess charge

nameless121

One of our hgv drivers had an accident which has caused £4000 worth of damage to the company vehicle. No other vehicle involved. Just a wall. (Undamaged) Our employer wants to take money off him to cover the insurance excess. So far, what’s been said is they are looking at charging him £2000. Is this legal? If so what is the maximum an employer can charge an employee?
Thanks in advance for any advice given.

mattymoo

It's only legal if it is in his contract of employment. Otherwise I suspect they do not stand a chance of passing this charge on, and certainly not £2k.

I've had it in previous contracts for my company car. The excess was £250 and the contract stated that on the third accident within a rolling 12 month period, I would be required to reimburse the policy excess. You'd have to be going some to have 3 smashes in 12 months so I was happy to sign.

nameless121

he has had 2 in 7 years. its not in the contract but we keep getting new guys with new ideas running things. sometimes they bring out a new bit in our contract that we must sign.

rheme

If it is not in the contract then they can't charge it. Any major changes to your contracts must go through a consultation process. If you don't agree with the proposed changes then you must inform them in writing.

Inactive

Take it up with your Union, you do have a Union?

nameless121

I’m not in a union but the guy who had the incident has just joined a union. If he is the only member of the union would it makes a difference.

bigstevex

As per previous posts, they have no legal right to charge him the excess unless its in his contract. A union is always helpful to be in when you have issues like this!

mattymoo

nameless121 wrote: »

I’m not in a union but the guy who had the incident has just joined a union. If he is the only member of the union would it makes a difference.

Yes it will.
All unions (afaik) offer legal advice and representation to their members.
As the only member though, the employer will not recognise the union for the purposes of collective pay negotiations - but that is not the issue here.

nameless121

ok. thanks guys

mcjordi

like the others have said its only legal if its in his contract

caeler

It doesn't have to be contractual. The contract with cover 'deductions' from wages ie the employer can make them when they are 'owed' money. What they will need to prove to show the deduction was fair and lawful is that he was told he could be liable for the excess in the event of an accident where he was proved at fault. This could be in the form of a policy, induction, memo, etc. He doesn't even need to have signed acceptance/understand but of course without that sort of evidence is does make it alot harder to prove.

£2K sounds very heavy, I really hope this gets resolved because nobody needs that hanging over their heads.