Your employer can’t deduct costs from your pay unless it’s actually in your contract.

The situation

A van driver worked for a small removals company for over two years. His contract said he'd be paid 65% of the value of each completed job, but it didn't include any term allowing his employer to take money off the top before working that percentage out. In practice, the company deducted fuel and other running costs from each job before calculating his share, something he says was simply imposed on him. He was also never paid for holiday, and his payslips and final paperwork were consistently inaccurate.

What the tribunal found

The tribunal ruled the deductions were unlawful. Once deductions are shown to have been made, the employer carries the burden of proving they were properly authorised, and this employer couldn't. The company said the arrangement had been agreed, but produced no records from the time to back that up. The tribunal found that the absence of any such records, which were within the company's own control, counted against it.

He had also not been paid statutory holiday pay. On top of that, the tribunal found the company had failed to give him proper written terms of employment. In total he was awarded £15,766.29. £9,200.00 of that covered the unlawful deductions under section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996The primary piece of legislation setting out employees rights in the UK, including the right not to be unfairly dismissed, the right to a written statement of employment particulars, and rights relati.... Unpaid holiday pay under the Working Time Regulations 1998 added £4,964.61, and the tribunal added the statutory maximum of £1,601.68 for the failure to provide written particulars under section 38 of the Employment Act 2002.