Pay at Work

The Acts provide a right of complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission where an employee believes that a contravention of the Act has occurred.

The Payment of Wages Act 1991 does not require employers to pay sick pay to employees. If, however, your contract of employment or a collective agreement provides for sick pay and you do not receive it, you may be able to make a claim under the Act.

Sick Pay and Sick Leave

In general the matter of sick pay and sick leave is not covered under employment rights legislation. Policy on sick pay and sick leave in individual companies may be decided by the employer and agreed as part of the employee’s terms and conditions of employment or may be set out through collective agreements negotiated between employers and employee representatives.

The Payment of Wages Act 1991 prevents employers from making deductions from wages or from receiving payment from their workers unless:

• required to do so by law (e.g. PAYE or PRSI)
• the deduction is provided for in the contract of employment (e.g. if the contact requires an employee to make pension contributions or to pay for till shortages etc.)
• the deduction is made with the written consent of the employee (e.g. private health insurance payments etc.)

However, if the deduction or the receipt of payment:

• arises from any act or omission of the employee (e.g. breakages)

Or

• is in respect of the supply to the employee by the employer of goods or services that are necessary to the employment (e.g. uniforms supplied)

then, it must be authorised by virtue of a term in the employee’s contract of employment

and

the employee must be given at some time prior to the act or omission, or the provision of the goods or services, written details of the terms in the contract of employment governing the deduction or payment to the employer from wages or written notice that such a term exists

and

the amount of the deduction must be fair and reasonable having regard to all the circumstances including the amount of the wages of the employee

and

if the deduction relates to an act or omission by the employee, the employee must be given written details of the act or omission at least one week before the deduction is made.

The modes of payment prescribed in Payment of Wages Act 1991 include cheque, credit transfer, cash, postal/money order and bank draft.

The Payment of Wages Act 1991 requires all employers to provide all employees with a written statement of their gross wages and any deductions made.

Yes there are minimum rates of pay and these are contained in the National Minimum Wage Act (as amended)

The current minimum rates of pay (as at April 2020) are:

• For the purposes of the national minimum wage your gross wage is your basic salary and any shift premium, bonus or service charge.
• If you receive food and accommodation from your employer, the following amounts are included in the minimum wage calculation:

€0.87 per hour for full board only

€23.15 for lodgings only per week, or €3.32 per day

• There are a number of items that are not to be included in the minimum wage calculation, these are:

Overtime premium, Call-out premium, Service pay, Unsocial hours premium, Tips which are placed in a central fund managed   by the employer and paid as part of your wages, Premiums for working public holidays, Saturdays or Sundays, Allowances for special or additional duties, On-call or standby allowances, Certain payments in relation to absences from work, for example, sick pay, holiday pay or pay during health and safety leave, Payment connected with leaving the employment including retirement, Contributions paid by the employer into any occupational pension scheme available to you, An advance payment of, for example, salary: the amount involved will be taken into account for the period in which it would normally have been paid, Payment in kind or benefit in kind, other than board and/or lodgings, Payment not connected with the employee’s employment, Compensation for injury or loss of tools, Award as part of a staff suggestion scheme, Loan by the employer to employees, Redundancy Payments

• The National Minimum Wage Act 2000 (as amended) applys to all employees except the following:

1. close relatives of the employer such as a spouse, father, mother, son, daughter, brother and sister

2. apprentices

• Minimum rates of pay for particular categories of employees may also be contained in Employment Regulation Orders  (EROs), Registered Employment Agreements (REAs) and Sectoral Employment Orders (SEOs).

The two main pieces of legislation governing pay at work are:

The National Minimum Wage Act 2000 (as amended)

And

The Payment of Wages Act 1991

Separately, you may also have a particular rate of pay which is included in your contract of employment or perhaps it is contained in a collective agreement which forms part of your contract.