Can an employee be made to pay for mistakes

Gandalfthegrey

My OH works for a company who buy in 2nd hand phones, games, dvd's, and computers ect and then sell in store for a profit. You may have heard of them they are called CEx.
The staff have been told that if they make a mistake they will have the amount deducted from their wages. (they are not self employed) For example a member of staff bought in an iphone 2 but put it into system as an iphone 4 by mistake so had to pay difference. Another colleague bought in a laptop (I dont know the details) but basically had £300 deducted from their wages for some reason or another. Also if at the end of the day the tills are down the staff have to pay the difference on that too.
They have only just been given their contrats after asking for them now on numerous occasions (the store opened in november) so no one has actually signed and agreed to this yet (although staff have paid for mistakes anyway) can my OH just sign the contract but cross out the part which says: 'The company will be entitled to deduct from your salary any money which you may owe to the company at any time' There is absolutely no way we could afford to have £100's of pounds taken from his wages, he is only on min wage as it is and has a family to support.
Surely this is the company's responsibility - to absorb any losses just like any other company would?? Is it even legal? I could understand if a member of staff was continually making the same mistake over and over again, but if it is a genuine human error I do not think it's fair and maybe a written warning should be given instead.
Does anyone here know anything about employment laws? ive tried googling it but cant find anything so far.
many thanks

McKneff

Ring ACAS.

getmore4less

he is only on min wage as it

They cannot deduct anything they have to pay at least min wage.

All those on min wage that have had deduction need to claim them back ASAP.

They need to be quick they have 3 months less a day to put in a ET claim if the employer won't pay up.

Gandalfthegrey

getmore4less wrote: »

he is only on min wage as it

They cannot deduct anything they have to pay at least min wage.

All those on min wage that have had deduction need to claim them back ASAP.

They need to be quick they have 3 months less a day to put in a ET claim if the employer won't pay up.

Oh great thats good to know! Do you know where I can find this information so that OH can show his boss? Also, sorry, but what is an 'ET claim'

borders_dude

It does sound reasonable that if employees are negligant in some form that they should be liable for any costs/loss of earnings incurred by the business.

The best way around this is to be a dilligent employee and avoid mistakes!

lucylucky

Government rules regarding deductions from wages

Under the law, only the following deductions are permitted:

• deductions required by law. e.g. income tax, insurance and government loan payments
• deductions that the employee has explicitly consented to in writing subject to certain conditions
• deductions explicitly mentioned in the employee's contract of employment and agreed to by the employee
• deductions that come about as a result of the violation of any statutes and imposed through disciplinary proceedings
• deductions for any statutory payments that are to be made to a public authority
• deductions incurred as a result of absence from work because of employee participation in strikes and other industrial actions
• deductions which are for the purpose of recovering excess payments of wages or expenses
• deductions that are ordered by a court or through an Employment Tribunal decision

As an additional protection for workers, there is a rule that limits the amount of deductions that the employer is allowed to make. This rule specifically states that even with your explicit permission, deductions must not result in the reduction of your pay to levels below the standard National Minimum Wage amount.


from here



http://www.inbrief.co.uk/employees/deductions-from-wages.htm

ET - Employment tribunal

lucylucky

borders_dude wrote: »

It does sound reasonable that if employees are negligant in some form that they should be liable for any costs/loss of earnings incurred by the business.

The best way around this is to be a dilligent employee and avoid mistakes!

It may well be "reasonable" in your opinion but in this case it is not legal

getmore4less

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1081676678&type=RESOURCES

Also if over the national min wage there are limits of 10%.

see part ii here a lot to read, I expect the retail rules apply in this employment case.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/18/contents

Googlewhacker

The company shouldn't be deducting money, what they should be doing is following disciplinary procedures for any large errors such as £300.

Then if its someone that makes one mistake the warning will fall away but if its an incompetant employee they will eventually get dismissed.