Delaney v Staples: CA 1991

Any failure by an employer to pay any amount of wages properly payable to an employee amounts to a deduction from his wages for the purposes of section 7. The basic object of the 1986 Act is ‘to see that workers receive their wages in full at the time they are due’.
The 1986 Act does not draw a distinction between, on the one hand, a mere non-payment or refusal to pay wages, and, on the other hand, a deduction from wages. The position is that any shortfall in the payment of the amount of wages properly payable to the worker is to be treated as a deduction. Nicholls LJ said: ‘If on his pay day, when an employee is due to be paid, a worker receives less wages than he should have done, the deficiency is to be regarded as a deduction for the purposes of the Act.’

Judges:

Nicholls LJ

Citations:

[1991] IRLR 112

Statutes:

Wages Act 1986 7

Cited by:

Appeal fromDelaney v Staples HL 15-Apr-1992
The claimant had been dismissed but had been given no payment in lieu of notice. She claimed to the Industrial Tribunal that this was an unlawful deduction from her wages and that therefore the Industrial Tribunal had jurisdiction.
Held: The . .
CitedRevenue and Customs v Stringer, Ainsworth and Others HL 10-Jun-2009
In each case, the employee had retired after long term sickness. The Employment tribunal had upheld their ability to claim arrears of sickness pay arising under the 1998 Regulations, as an unlawful deduction from their wages. They now appealed . .
CitedBruce and Others v Wiggins Teape (Stationery) Ltd EAT 13-May-1994
Employees appealed against decisions that their employer had not made unlawful deductions from their wages. The company had unilaterally reduced the rate of overtime pay.
Held: The appeal was allowed.
Mummery J P said: ‘the reason why the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Employment

Updated: 02 May 2022; Ref: scu.374670