Unlawful Deductions From Wages
Published on: 24/05/2022
Issues Covered:
Article Authors The main content of this article was provided by the following authors.
Kiera Lee Partner, Mills Selig
Kiera Lee Partner, Mills Selig
Kiera lee

Kiera has over 20 years’ experience in employment law,  acting for employers in contentious and non-contentious matters. Her client list includes leading NI Companies and large employers.

Kiera’s experience covers day to day HR problems and complex restructuring issues. She has given advice on a restructure and redundancy programme involving more than 800 employees, defended multi claimant tribunal claims for unfair dismissal arising from TUPE transfers. She recently advised on the high-profile acquisition of Wrightbus and the sale of Novosco.

She also assists with strategic decisions, successfully managing the exit of senior executives including any contentious issues with shareholding and restrictive covenants.

What the legal press says about Kiera:

  • heads the department and handles contentious and non-contentious employment matters. Sources speak to her solid reputation and commend her commercial outlook, calling her a “business-focused employment lawyer.”
  • provides “an excellent level of service”
  • “has an excellent grasp of the commercial aspects of employment law.”
  • She is commercial, pragmatic and knows which battles to fight.
  • ...an excellent service in a timely manner
  • ...knowledgeable

Unlawful deductions from wages (“UDW”) are commonplace and yet it’s an area of HR that many businesses get wrong. Businesses often then leave themselves open to Tribunal claims from their staff for the deductions from wages that they make.

Businesses can be liable for unlawful deductions claims even in circumstances where they had a legitimate reason to make the deduction. Except in cases of mistake, deductions from wages by a business are only permitted in one of these three instances (Article 45 Employment Rights (NI) Order 1996):

  1. required by law. The scope of this is limited but is most commonly seen in the deductions for income tax and national insurance contributions;
  2. authorised by the contract of employment; or

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Disclaimer The information in this article is provided as part of Legal Island's Employment Law Hub. We regret we are not able to respond to requests for specific legal or HR queries and recommend that professional advice is obtained before relying on information supplied anywhere within this article. This article is correct at 24/05/2022