How long to dispute deduction of wages?

B0bbyEwing

Hopefully when the dust settles, this will have ended up being nothing more than a what if question, but it's best to know in advance.

Nothing signed in terms of a contract to say that approval is given to make deduction from wages.

So say the employer makes a hefty deduction. I'm going to hazard a guess in the £200 region which will be approx. 10-12% of the net take home pay for the employee.

How long after that payslip which will show the deduction does the employee then have before it's too late to challenge it?

To be a little clearer - challenging it doesn't involve going to the employer & saying I think you're wrong or please can I have that back, because no form of direct employee-employer contact will result in any deduction being overturned. Challenging would involve a solicitor/union being involved.

Marcon

B0bbyEwing said:

Hopefully when the dust settles, this will have ended up being nothing more than a what if question, but it's best to know in advance.

Nothing signed in terms of a contract to say that approval is given to make deduction from wages.

So say the employer makes a hefty deduction. I'm going to hazard a guess in the £200 region which will be approx. 10-12% of the net take home pay for the employee.

How long after that payslip which will show the deduction does the employee then have before it's too late to challenge it?

To be a little clearer - challenging it doesn't involve going to the employer & saying I think you're wrong or please can I have that back, because no form of direct employee-employer contact will result in any deduction being overturned. Challenging would involve a solicitor/union being involved.

Why? A simple claim to an Employment Tribunal is free and perfectly straightforward to make. You've got 3 months to make it from the time of the deduction, always assuming it is indeed 'unlawful'.

If this is all about your friend who thinks they are being treated unfairly https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6398257/employer-selecting-who-they-enforce-rules-on/p1 then it probably is a great deal messier than this post suggests, in which case union or legal input could well be needed.

B0bbyEwing

lincroft1710 said:

Surely if you found an unexpected deduction in your payslip you would query it immediately??

There's more to it than that but for the purposes of the thread, it's not necessary to go in to.

Why? A simple claim to an Employment Tribunal is free and perfectly straightforward to make. You've got 3 months to make it from the time of the deduction, always assuming it is indeed 'unlawful'.

It wont let me quote you directly Marcon so I've had to copy & paste.

Employee is already a member of a union so it wouldn't be any extra payment over what's already in place. As it's 4:40pm on a Sunday, I don't think a phone call to them would be much good, plus I don't think they'd appreciate their time being wasted on a what if which (hopefully) wont happen.

Not sure whether this will be unlawful or not so here's the circumstances.

Item damaged in a genuine accident. All procedures followed & this procedure was carried out the exact same way many times before without issue and immediately afterwards without issue, so not sure if it was machine fault (I'd actually doubt it) or perhaps product not machined properly & slightly misaligned maybe. I've really no idea but nothing was done different to any other time but damage occurred to stock. 
It would not be the first time that an employee has had a deduction made from their wage without being told. Their first knowing of it being when they open their payslip, despite promises of a "fair investigation" which translates as it's easier for us to point the finger at you and take money from you than it is to entertain the idea that machine or product or some unknown factor resulting in a genuine accident may be the cause. 
Who knows, maybe there'll be a shocker & the employee will be asked about it before being deducted. No approval will be given though as nothing was done differently to any other time when handling that exact same product. Actually, no real explanation can be given as employee cannot understand how it actually happened.

Marcon

B0bbyEwing said:

lincroft1710 said:

Surely if you found an unexpected deduction in your payslip you would query it immediately??

There's more to it than that but for the purposes of the thread, it's not necessary to go in to.

Why? A simple claim to an Employment Tribunal is free and perfectly straightforward to make. You've got 3 months to make it from the time of the deduction, always assuming it is indeed 'unlawful'.

It wont let me quote you directly Marcon so I've had to copy & paste.

Employee is already a member of a union so it wouldn't be any extra payment over what's already in place. As it's 4:40pm on a Sunday, I don't think a phone call to them would be much good, plus I don't think they'd appreciate their time being wasted on a what if which (hopefully) wont happen.

Doesn't sound urgent - it hasn't actually happened - so possibly waiting until Monday to contact the union would be reasonable? Or maybe waiting until the event happens, since only then could you challenge? An unlawful deduction must have occurred, not just be a possibility.

B0bbyEwing said:

Not sure whether this will be unlawful or not so here's the circumstances.

Item damaged in a genuine accident. All procedures followed & this procedure was carried out the exact same way many times before without issue and immediately afterwards without issue, so not sure if it was machine fault (I'd actually doubt it) or perhaps product not machined properly & slightly misaligned maybe. I've really no idea but nothing was done different to any other time but damage occurred to stock. 
It would not be the first time that an employee has had a deduction made from their wage without being told. Their first knowing of it being when they open their payslip, despite promises of a "fair investigation" which translates as it's easier for us to point the finger at you and take money from you than it is to entertain the idea that machine or product or some unknown factor resulting in a genuine accident may be the cause. 
Who knows, maybe there'll be a shocker & the employee will be asked about it before being deducted. No approval will be given though as nothing was done differently to any other time when handling that exact same product. Actually, no real explanation can be given as employee cannot understand how it actually happened.

If there's nothing in the contract/terms of employment which permits the employer to make such a deduction, then yes, that sounds as if it could indeed be unlawful, but obviously it's difficult to comment with authority without knowing the full facts.