Is fining an employee lawful?

Deano153

I recently started work for a National furniture retailer. My employers recently ‘fined’ me for loss of profit after I mistakenly ordered the wrong feet on a customers sofa. The replacement parts cost £56 in total. I was fined with loss of £75 commission on the sale and will have £56 taken from my wages

DCFC79

Deano153 wrote: »

I recently started work for a National furniture retailer. My employers recently ‘fined’ me for loss of profit after I mistakenly ordered the wrong feet on a customers sofa. The replacement parts cost £56 in total. I was fined with loss of £75 commission on the sale and will have £56 taken from my wages

What does your contract say ?

Money_maker

I'm pretty sure they cant take it below min wage.

agrinnall

If your contract does allow them to do it then I'd be looking for another job at a better employer. I would have though that either paying for the replacement parts or losing your commission might be reasonable, but not both.

shortcrust

As long as it's in your contract it's completely lawful, and my understanding is that such deductions can take you below NWM.

It seems fair to make commission conditional on an order being correct. After all, the customer has had the wrong product delivered, has had to contact you and make arrangements for the replacement. That's a big deal for a customer and damages the reputation of the company. It's more a case of not qualifying for a bonus rather than a fine. The £56 seems petty considering it's a national retailer.

ReadingTim

agrinnall wrote: »

I would have though that either paying for the replacement parts or losing your commission might be reasonable, but not both.

I don't think both is that unreasonable - replacement parts is a direct cost to the employer, while I don't see why a salesman should be "rewarded" with a commission payment for a sale when he or she messed up the order in the first place. Yes, everyone makes mistakes, no, no-one should be rewarded for them.

The OP doesn't say who noticed the error, but I'm guessing it wasn't the salesman.... losing one's commission might focus the mind a little on being accurate when taking customer orders in future....

ReadingTim

shortcrust wrote: »

The £56 seems petty considering it's a national retailer.

Really?!? - multiply that figure by the number of orders they're taking by the number of salespeople they have across the country and those amounts can soon mount up to a pretty serious sum.

56p would be pretty, £56 anything but.

Alter_ego

If you've paid for the feet it would not be unreasonable to ask for them.
However that might annoy your employer.

shortcrust

ReadingTim wrote: »

Really?!? - multiply that figure by the number of orders they're taking by the number of salespeople they have across the country and those amounts can soon mount up to a pretty serious sum.

56p would be pretty, £56 anything but.

I'm not saying the amount is petty, but occasional mistakes are an inevitable consequence of employing human beings. If this were a 'first offence' I think it would be appropriate for the employer to absorb the cost.

We seem to treat mistakes that involve objects with precise price tags very differently to mistakes that have more abstract costs. Order the wrong item and you pay for it. Make a mistake on a spreadsheet that takes all afternoon to find and fix and no one would dream of billing you for the wasted hours.

Alter_ego wrote: »

If you've paid for the feet it would not be unreasonable to ask for them.
However that might annoy your employer.

I'd certainly be keen to know what had happened to them. Returned to the supplier for a refund perhaps?

System

I'm afraid it happens all over...possibly in the contract. I would say, why can't the feet be sent back for a refund? Distance selling laws (if you ordered over the internet) say that you can return with no excuse within 28 days for a full refund?

My cousin worked at KFC, if the till was under at the end of your shift, it came out your wages.

Five euros goes to the first person who can guess what happened if the till was over?

prowla

It seems very petty to me, unless they were trying to make a point.