Can your boss take it out of your pay?.

The four lawful routes

• You authorised it in writing, and it is principally for your benefit. Salary sacrifice, extra super, union fees and health insurance premiums are typical examples.
• You authorised it under an enterprise agreement that provides for it.
• An award or a Fair Work Commission order allows it. The common one is the award rule letting an employer withhold up to a week's wages if you resign without enough notice.
• A law or court order requires it. Tax withholding, child support and garnishee orders are examples.

What your written authorisation must say

• For a single deduction, the amount, plus the other details the regulations require.
• For repeated deductions, whether they are a fixed amount or an amount that varies.
• Any change to a specified amount needs a fresh written authorisation.

You can withdraw an authorisation in writing at any time.

There is an extra limit: if a deduction benefits your employer (or a related business) and the amount can vary, written authorisation alone is not enough unless the regulations treat that kind of deduction as reasonable.

Till shortfalls and breakages

These deductions benefit the employer. A clause in your contract, award or agreement that lets the employer make a deduction for its own benefit has no effect if the deduction is unreasonable in the circumstances. And separately, your employer must not require you to spend or pay back your own money, for its benefit, where that requirement is unreasonable.

So "the till was $40 short, so it's coming out of your pay" does not work. Signing an authorisation does not make a till-shortfall deduction lawful, because that route only covers deductions mainly for your benefit. It can be lawful only if your award, enterprise agreement or a law allows it, and even then it must be reasonable. Some awards allow it only in narrow cases; the Fair Work Ombudsman notes, for example, that the Hospitality Award allows deductions for till shortages only for wilful misconduct by employees 18 or over. Ask your employer to point to the authority for any deduction.

If you are under 18

A term that lets your employer deduct from your pay, or requires you to make a payment, has no effect unless a parent or guardian agreed to it in writing.

What to do about it

• Ask in writing what the deduction was and what authorised it.
• If you never authorised it, or want to stop it, withdraw any authorisation in writing.
• An unlawful deduction is unpaid wages. You can recover it the same way: see underpaid wages.

Questioning a deduction is a workplace right. Your employer cannot act against you for raising it. See general protections.

What the law says

• s 323 pay in full, in money, at least monthly
• s 324 the four permitted kinds of deduction, written authorisations and withdrawing them
• s 325 unreasonable requirements to spend or pay your own money
• s 326 terms allowing unreasonable employer-benefit deductions have no effect; the under-18 rule

Sections are of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). The notice-shortfall rule in most awards is described by the Fair Work Ombudsman on its resignation page.

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