Wages Owing / Deduction From Wages
About This Project
The Employments Rights Act 1996, sections 13 – 27 determine the circumstances in which:
- Your employer can and cannot deduct wages from your salary; and
- Your employer may receive a payment from you as an employee or worker.
Your employer is not entitled to make any deduction from your wages unless:
- the deduction is required or authorised to be made by virtue of a statutory provision or a relevant provision of your contract; or
- you have previously signified in writing your agreement or consent to the making of the deduction.
The right for you not to suffer deductions does not apply where the purpose of the deduction is reimbursement of:
- An overpayment of wages; or
- An overpayment in respect of expenses incurred by you in carrying out your employment.
Furthermore, such deductions do not apply to a deduction of your wages:
- In consequence of any disciplinary proceedings if those proceedings were held by virtue of a statutory provision;
- In pursuance of a requirement imposed on your employer by a statutory provision to deduct and pay over to a public authority amounts determined by that authority as being due to it from you (for example, student loans);
- Where you have taken part in a strike or other industrial action and the deduction is on account of you having taken part in that strike or other action; or
- Where there is a deduction made with your prior agreement or consent signified in writing where the purpose of the deduction is the satisfaction of an order of a Court or Tribunal requiring the payment of the amount to your employer (for example, an attachment of earnings order).
Finally, such deductions do not apply to a deduction in pursuance of any arrangements which have been established:
- in accordance with a relevant provision of your contract where you have signified your agreement or consent in writing; or
- otherwise with your prior agreement or consent, signified in writing,
and under which your employer is to deduct and pay over to a third person amounts notified to your employer by that person as being due to him from the worker, if the deduction is made in accordance with the relevant notification by that person.
Your employer is not entitled to receive a payment from you in your capacity as worker or employee. Your rights and the exceptions broadly mirror those pertaining to the right not to suffer unlawful deductions.
The definition of wages includes:
- Any fee, bonus, commission, holiday pay or any other emolument under your contract of employment;
- Statutory sick pay;
- Statutory maternity pay;
- Statutory paternity pay or additional statutory paternity pay;
- Statutory adoption pay;
- A guarantee payment;
- Any payment for time off under Part VI of the Employment Rights Act 1996 or section 169 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.
- Remuneration on suspension on medical grounds and remuneration on suspension on maternity grounds pursuant to sections 64 and 68 or the Employment Rights Act 1996;
- Remuneration on ending the supply of an agency worker on maternity grounds;
- Any sum payable pursuant to an order for reinstatement or re-engagement by an Employment Tribunal;
- Any sum payable by order of an Employment Tribunal for the continuation of a contract of employment under section 130 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 or section 164 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992;
- Remuneration under a protective award under the Employment Rights Act 1996, section189.
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