Can an employer dock my DHs wages?

[FatimaLovesBread]

My DH worked out on a job last week. A couple of things went wrong on the job which meant that they didn't get home until after the regular finish time. All fine as it just goes down as overtime. They also had to set off an hour earlier to get to the job so that is overtime too.

DH got called in to discuss what went wrong on the job and got a bollocking. He admitted that one thing was his fault and shouldn't have happened but wasn't entirely preventable. The rest of the issues were as a result of poor communication from those in charge of the job.

DH has heard today, from a random colleague, that his wages will be docked this week because of this job. He'll still get his standard pay but he won't receive the overtime that he is due.

Can they do this? And should they have notified him before hand?

What does his contract say?

They can only do this if he has previously signed something to say he agrees: it may be a clause in his contract to say they can make deductions in certain circumstances or a separate policy. They could tell him they want to do this and ask him to sign something to say he agrees, but of course he doesnt have to do this (if he doesn't agree).

some more info here:

www.gov.uk/understanding-your-pay/deductions-from-your-pay

Hope this helps x

There's a section in his contract about deductions from pay which says they can deduct any overpayment and then lists things such as holiday taken but not accrued, speeding fines, bring late, course fees, that kind of thing.

The section of overtime says he will be required to work it when needed when on site, and on a voluntary basis when working at the normal workplace.

I thought they may have decided not to pay it as the job went wrong so they weren't finished on time so in effect they didn't agree to it.
But he's pointed out that on of the reasons it went wrong was they were supposed to be on site at 8am, none of the managers at work had passed this info on so they didn't get there until half 9. Therefore they'd have had to do the overtime anyway just at the start of the day rather than the end.

DH is annoyed as he normally works in the workshop but was asked to go out. He wasn't given correct information on what the job was and the correct tools weren't available. As a result of it he's got a bollocking and losing out on overtime.

Well it doesn't sound as though the contract allows them deduct from pay in those circumstances, so I'd suggest he pushes back on that. If they think he did something wrong, or is not performing or whatever, they should follow whatever the appropriate procedures are, not just decide not to pay him for hours worked.

Thanks flowery and soundsystem.
I'll let him question it then. I'm a bit hesitant to push it over a few quid but then again I'd be annoyed if it was me.