The good news for the employer in this case was at least there was a written individual employment agreement. That agreement had one clause that provided that all money owed by the employee at the end of the contract was to be paid back in full on the final day of work. It said that the employer could deduct money owed by the employee from their final pay.
The agreement also said that all tools provided by the company were to be returned. The employer had the right to deduct the replacement value of any missing tools from the final pay.
The employee accepted some of the deductions as lawful. However a significant proportion of the money deducted by the employer was for missing tools. Mr Y said that he had an apprentice working with him who shared the tools and it was the apprentice who lost Pratt’s Plumbing equipment not him.
The Authority concluded that Pratts Plumbing could not deduct money for lost tools because it could not show that it had any reasonable basis for concluding that Mr Y (as opposed to the apprentice) was responsible for the missing tools.
The employer also made a deduction of $80.00 for the cost of the having the van commercially cleaned after it was returned. There was no contractual right or other agreement between the parties to hold Mr Y liable for the cost of having the van cleaned commercially. Accordingly the deduction was unlawful.
The lesson from this case is if the employment agreement provides for it employers you can deduct money from an employees final pay. Make sure the deductions are provided for in the agreement and amount has been proved.
As an aside I often see cases where Dairy Farmers are left to tidy up workers houses and want to charge for the cost of the cleaning. You can, but make sure that your agreement states this and even better state whether commercial cleaners will do it, or if you are going to do it state an hourly rate. If you do this it is very difficult for an employee to argue that the cost of cleaning was unreasonable.
