Payment of Wages Rights | A Guide

Payment of Wages Resources:

• Guide to Payment of Wages under Irish Employment Law
• Bringing a Payment of Wages Claim
• Payment of Wages Cases and Claims
• Non Payment of Wages and Unfair Dismissal

Introduction - Payment of Wages in Ireland

In circumstances where an employee has not been paid all they are owed, the disputed sum may be considered a 'deduction' and the impacted employee could bring a claim before the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).

Claims relating to the payment of wages can be brought under the Payment of Wages Act, 1991.

Payment of Wages Act

Section 5 of the Act deals with regulation of certain deductions made by employers, the relevant part are as follows:-

Section 5(1) provides:-

• An employer shall not make a deduction from the wages of an employee (or receive any payment from an employee) unless—
• (a) the deduction (or payment) is required or authorised to be made by virtue of any statute or any instrument made under statute,
• (b) the deduction (or payment) is required or authorised to be made by virtue of a term of the employee's contract of employment included in the contract before, and in force at the time of, the deduction or payment, or
• (c) in the case of a deduction, the employee has given his prior consent in writing to it.

Section 5(6) provides:-

• Where—
• (a) the total amount of any wages that are paid on any occasion by an employer to an employee is less than the total amount of wages that is properly payable by him to the employee on that occasion (after making any deductions therefrom that fall to be made and are in accordance with this Act), or
• (b) none of the wages that are properly payable to an employee by an employer on any occasion (after making any such deductions as aforesaid) are paid to the employee,
• then, except in so far as the deficiency or non-payment is attributable to an error of computation, the amount of the deficiency or non-payment shall be treated as a deduction made by the employer from the wages of the employee on the occasion.

Not Paying Full Amount

The Act at Section 5 makes it clear that a deduction made by an employer is unlawful except in circumstances where the employee has given his or her prior consent in writing. Subsection (6)(a) of Section 5 of the Act provides, in effect, that where the total amount of wages properly payable to an employee is not paid, the deficiency or non-payment is to be regarded as a deduction.

In Dunnes Stores (Cornelscourt) v Lacey and Nuala O’Brien[2005] IEHC 417, unreported Finnegan P., the High Court found that in determining claims under the legislation, the central consideration is whether or not the remuneration in question was ‘properly payable’ to the claimant.

The WRC must first decide whether the claimed unlawful deductions were in fact properly payable to the Complainant. If so, and there is no lawful basis for non-payment, the WRC may order that the employer make such payment as was owed.