Services / Labour and employment
How much can an employer deduct from wages?
Money missing from a payslip is often explained as company policy. The statute approaches it from the other direction: deductions are prohibited, and the exceptions are then listed one by one with express numerical caps.
A prohibition first, exceptions after
Section 76 of the Labour Protection Act B.E. 2541 (1998) bars an employer from deducting from wages, overtime pay, holiday pay or holiday overtime pay, except to pay income tax or other sums provided by law; union dues; debts to a savings co-operative or a debt for welfare benefiting the employee alone, with prior consent; a guarantee under section 10 or compensation for damage to the employer, with consent; and savings under a provident fund agreement.
The ten per cent and one-fifth caps
The last paragraph of section 76 sets two levels of cap. Deductions under (2), (3), (4) and (5) must not exceed ten per cent in each case, and must not exceed one-fifth in aggregate of the money the employee is entitled to on the section 70 payment date, unless the employee consents. Note that the tax deduction under (1) sits outside these caps, being made under other law.
Damage has to reach a threshold
Section 76(4) does not open the door to deducting every loss. The words confine it to damage the employee caused intentionally or by gross negligence, and consent is required as well. Ordinary working mistakes falling short of that threshold do not come within the exception, whatever an internal rule may say.
Work guarantees under section 10
Section 10 bars an employer from demanding or accepting a guarantee of work or against loss in the work, whether money, other property or a personal surety, unless the nature or conditions of the work make the employee responsible for the employer's money or property in a way that could cause the employer loss. The qualifying kinds of work, the permitted types of guarantee, its value and how it is to be held are as the Minister prescribes.
Returning the guarantee within seven days
On termination, resignation or expiry of the guarantee contract, section 10 requires the employer to return the guarantee with interest, if any, within seven days. Section 9 places a failure to return a money guarantee under section 10 in the same provision as a failure to pay wages: interest at fifteen per cent a year during default, and a further fifteen per cent every seven days where the refusal is intentional and without reasonable cause.
PREPARE
What to bring
- Every payslip showing a deduction
- The rule the employer relies on for the deduction
- Any consent form you signed
- Evidence of the guarantee paid and its amount
- What the job actually involved and what property it covered
QUESTIONS
Questions this raises
I signed a consent to deductions when I joined.
Consent is indeed one element of the section 76 exceptions, but it does not make every deduction lawful, because the deduction must first fall within one of (1) to (5). A deduction for damage, for instance, still has to be for damage caused intentionally or by gross negligence. A broad consent signed in advance therefore does not cover every line that appears on the payslip.
I resigned and the guarantee has not come back.
Section 10 fixes the period at seven days from the resignation, and does not tie it to completing a handover or an internal audit first. Once the period has passed, section 9 provides interest at fifteen per cent a year during default, and the further sum every seven days where the refusal is intentional and without reasonable cause.
LAW
The legislation
- Labour Protection Act B.E. 2541 (1998), section 10
- Labour Protection Act B.E. 2541 (1998), section 76
- Labour Protection Act B.E. 2541 (1998), section 9
ENQUIRIES
