An insurance company which deducted a salesman’s entire monthly wages from his last pay packet in what they said was a bid to claw back bonus payments owed to them has been ordered to pay back the money.<\/p>\n
In a decision published today, the Workplace Relations Commission ruled Ur Insurances (Europe) Ltd, trading as Actual Insurances, had \u201csimply no basis\u201d for claiming the worker, Alan Rooney, owed it nearly \u20ac5,000 worth of commission payments back.<\/p>\n
Denying a complaint of unlawful wage deductions under the Payment of Wages Act 1991 by Mr Rooney, the company claimed the worker was missing his sales targets and had been overpaid commission.<\/p>\n
Mr Rooney told the employment tribunal at a hearing in June 2023 that the company\u2019s actions in deducting the entire net amount of his final month\u2019s gross salary of \u20ac2,500 when he resigned in February that year were \u201coutrageous\u201d. <\/p>\n
The WRC was told the company processed the payment through payroll, and paid income tax to the Revenue Commissioners, but then deducted \u20ac2,138.58 from his net salary \u2013 all of take-home pay for the month, the tribunal noted.<\/p>\n
Company director Albert Noonan gave evidence that there was a \u201clack of sales\u2026 for a while\u201d by Mr Rooney. His fellow director, Ger Noonan, said the complainant had been getting half commission to \u201cencourage him\u201d.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s position was that there was a \u201cdeficit\u201d in Mr Rooney\u2019s targets and that it was \u201centitled to claw back the commissions previously paid\u201d, the tribunal noted.<\/p>\n
The directors maintained their company was owed back \u20ac4,932 by Mr Rooney.<\/p>\n
Mr Rooney\u2019s evidence was that any commission he received was paid to him for a month when he hit his targets.<\/p>\n
He told the WRC the firm was \u201ctrying to confuse the commission structure and basic salary\u201d and that his failure to meet sales targets after receiving earlier commission targets was \u201cnot the same thing as overpayment\u201d.<\/p>\n
He explained that there had been a monthly sales target of \u20ac8,000 while he was there \u2013 a \u201crolling target\u201d which would see any shortfall added to the following month\u2019s goal, so that a \u20ac6,000 sales total would lead to a \u20ac10,000 target the following month.<\/p>\n
Mr Rooney said there were \u201cups and downs\u201d in his sales during his time at Actual Insurances and that he ultimately resigned because of a combination of the stress of the role and the deficit in his sales target which had built up.<\/p>\n
In his decision on the case, adjudicator David James Murphy said the worker\u2019s salary for his last month on the job was \u201cof course properly payable to him\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Murphy said the company had attempted to rely on the defence of an overpayment of wages to justify the deduction, but that it had \u201cat no time overpaid the complainant\u201d.<\/p>\n
On the directors\u2019 argument that they clawed back the sum because they became \u201cunhappy\u201d with his performance, Mr Murphy added that there was \u201cno suggestion\u201d Mr Rooney ever agreed to a deduction or that the suggestion of a deduction was ever put to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is simply no basis to assert the complainant owes or owed the respondent \u20ac4,932,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n
He ordered the firm to pay Mr Rooney \u20ac2,138.58 for his net wages in February 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An insurance company which deducted a salesman’s entire monthly wages from his last pay packet in what they said was a bid to claw back bonus payments owed to them has been ordered to pay back the money.<\/p>\n
In a decision published today, the Workplace Relations Commission ruled Ur Insurances (Europe) Ltd, trading as Actual Insurances, had \u201csimply no basis\u201d for <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":63246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n