Can jobs withhold pay

Examine your paperwork to check whether you've granted your employer permission to deduct that amount. An employer may not legally remove money from an employee's earnings unless the employee has consented in writing to do so.

Write to your employer and explain that you are entitled overtime, what you are owed, and when you should have received it. Include supporting documentation, such as timesheets, overtime policies, contracts, and so on. If the overtime is lawfully owed to you, you may file a claim against the company for wrongful wage deduction.

You have three months and one day to file a claim with the Tribunal.

If you do not get a response to your letter within seven days, contact ACAS Early Conciliation to begin the early conciliation procedure, which is required before filing a claim with the Tribunal. If you are unable to reach an agreement through this procedure (for example, they refuse to cooperate and you are not compensated), you may need to consider filing a claim.

Employees are sometimes entitled to be paid even while they are absent. All employees and laborers, for example, are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid statutory leave and statutory ill pay (if they qualify). When an employee is suspended, he is entitled to his entire compensation.

Employers have the legal right to withhold pay in the following situations:

Where a documented clear contractual right to do so exists.

Where the employee refuses to work, is on strike, or will only "work to rule" (industrial action short of a strike) and only offers partial service. To get paid, an employee must perform all of his obligations in accordance with the provisions of his employment contract.

When an employee has previously been overpaid by the business. For example, if the employer misjudged the employee's salary on 1 February and overpaid him by £500, the company is allowed to take that £500 from the employee's next pay packet.

Other than in the situations described above, an employee (or worker) has the right to file a claim before a tribunal for improper deduction from earnings.

An actual deduction must have been made before an employee may file such a claim. The employee cannot file a claim since the employer has only threatened to withhold pay. However, if an employer threatens to unjustly take money from his employee's wages or not pay him at all, the employee may claim an anticipatory breach of contract, enabling him to quit and claim constructive dismissal.

Employers must exercise caution in situations where the employee's contract has been ended but he or she still owes the employer money (for example, a season ticket loan), since the company does not have a contractual right to deduct that money from the employee's salary. If the employer deducts, say, £1,000 from the employee's final paycheck to repay the debt, and the employee files and wins a claim for wrongful deduction, the company must reimburse the employee for that £1000. The sting in the tail is that the law forbids an employer from recovering that £1,000 in civil court from an employee.

To summarize, an employer must have a valid basis to withhold pay. If there is such a cause, there should be a clear, unambiguous language in the employment contract, which the employee will have signed, allowing the employer to do so. Call Reggie right now for a fixed rate quote.

Have you considered contacting our Human Resources Team if you are worried about the possibility of encountering any of these or other Human Resources issues? Birkett Long Human Resources provides a one-of-a-kind service. Rather than a "one size fits all" approach, our specialists will create a package that is tailored to your specific requirements.