Your rights: Wrong to deduct wages

Q. I work with others in cleaning time-share flats. Recently the managers have handed this work over to a newly established cleaning company who wants to retain us. The manager/owner of the new company has given us a small increase in our hourly rate but says we are now not entitled to morning or afternoon tea breaks, which we still take so he is deducting 15 minutes for each break from our wages. Is this legal? In the past we had no formal contract with the time-share managers and we have no contract with the new cleaning company.

A. Employees are not automatically transferred from their old employer to the new owner on the sale of a business. When a business is sold all staff become redundant. It is then up to each employee whether they will accept employment with the new owner if the new owner offers it.

The old employer is responsible for any redundancy notice and compensation that may be due and should have consulted you over redundancy in deciding issues of notice and compensation. You were entitled to reasonable notice (one month) from your old employer.

You had no entitlement to redundancy compensation since your (unwritten) employment agreement said nothing about this.

Before you started work for the new owner you should have been provided with a written employment agreement containing the proposed terms and conditions of employment. Because your new employer has not done this they are in breach of the requirements of the Employment Relations Act 2000.

You and your new employer clearly have a dispute over the terms and conditions of employment. The Employment Relations Authority might determine that your terms and conditions of employment are the same or similar to those you had with your old employer. If so, your right to paid morning and afternoon breaks would continue.

Your employer has also breached the Wages Protection Act 1983 by making deductions from your wages without your written authority. You can seek a Labour Inspector's assistance to recover the money your new employer has deducted.

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Q. When I recently left my job my boss deducted $161 out of my wages for business cards. I did not sign a contract and the contract I read did not mention this. I did not give written permission for this deduction to be made. Do I have the right to be reimbursed?

A. The fact that you did not sign an employment agreement does not mean that you do not have one. The Employment Relations Authority will probably say that you and your employer are bound by an oral employment agreement that contains similar terms and conditions to the one you read. But because you have not agreed in writing to deductions being made from your pay your employer had no right to do so.

You do have a right to be reimbursed the $161. Your employer has breached the Wages Protection Act 1983 by making a deduction from your wages without your written authority. You can seek the Labour Inspector's assistance to recover the money your employer has deducted.

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