This is an appeal by the complainant against a decision of the Adjudication Officer. The complainant alleged that there had been an unlawful deduction from his wages and sought reimbursement of same. The respondent company claimed that the complainant's letter of appointment had, through an administrative error, wrongfully stated that on his promotion he was promoted to point 2 of the relevant scale, when it should have been point 1.

This resulted in an overpayment of €3,569.93. The complainant was later made aware of this overpayment and informed that the overpayment would be deducted from his wages over 73 fortnights. Following representations from the complainant the respondent agreed to reduce this amount to €1,289 over 12 months.

His union subsequently claimed that the deduction of €1,289 from his wages was unlawful. The Union submitted that the letter of appointment was a binding contract and therefore the complainant should have been paid per point 2 of the scale.

The respondent referred to the complainant's contract of employment which reserved the right to make deductions from payments due to employees in order to reimburse the company.

The Court explained that the Act only allows deductions where the employee has given their consent in writing but it does not apply to a deduction in respect of overpayment of wages where the amount deducted does not exceed the amount due by the employer. The Court was satisfied that the appropriate salary to be paid to the complainant was the first point on the relevant scale and therefore it was not unlawful for the respondent to deduct the overpayment monies. Accordingly, the Court rejected the appeal and upheld the decision of the Adjudication Officer.
http://www.workplacerelations.ie/en/Cases/2018/May/PWD1822.html