A model letter to seek a former employee's consent to make a deduction from their final salary payment where an overpayment was discovered after the individual left your organisation.
This case is a good example of how the terms of a staff handbook that is stated to be non-contractual can still be incorporated into an employee's contract of employment.
An industrial tribunal in Northern Ireland has awarded a managing director almost £149,000, which included an unusually large award for unlawful deductions from wages of £112,000.
In HM Revenue and Customs v Stringer and others sub nom Commissioners of Inland Revenue v Ainsworth and others [2009] IRLR 677 HL, the House of Lords held that a claim for unpaid holiday due under the Working Time Regulations 1998 can be brought as an unlawful deductions from wages claim under ss.13 and 23 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
In Small and others v Boots Co and another [2009] All ER (D) 200 (Jan) EAT, the EAT held that the fact that the employer had stated that a bonus was discretionary did not necessarily mean that it had no contractual effect. The employer's discretion could relate to: whether or not to operate a bonus system at all; whether or not to award a bonus in a given year; or the amount of bonus to be awarded.