Can we make deductions from salary?
When can the employer make payroll deductions?
According to the Set-Off Act (Law on Employers' Set-Off Rights), the employer's right to set-off is heavily regulated and limited. In practice, written consent or an agreement between employee and employer is usually required.
1. The employee has given his consent, so-called voluntary set-off
If there is consent, it is free to set off based on this. This may be the case, for example, for holiday debts, rent or loans. If the consent is very old, however, it has been stated in practice that the employer should check with the employee that he or she understands that a set-off will take place. A consent to set-off can be revoked by the employee at any time. Neither the consent nor any revocation need to be in writing.
2. Forced set-off due to contract, collective agreement or damages
The requirement here is that the claim must be clear and due and must have arisen in connection with the employment. If this is the case, a forced set-off may be made due to an agreement between the employer and the employee, a collective agreement or due to damages.
Forced set-off requires an opinion from the Swedish Enforcement Authority.
The employee must be able to support himself and his family. Therefore, an opinion from the Swedish Enforcement Authority is required before forced set-off is carried out.
Payroll deduction practices
AD 1975 No. 83 concerned a doctor who had received too much compensatory leave. She and other doctors had filled in her on-call report incorrectly. She had spoken to her colleagues about how the report should be filled in. She had also spoken on the phone with the payroll department where the payroll department told her that an error had occurred and that her balance was too high and this should be corrected. The doctor and his party understood the conversation as if it had already been corrected. Later, the doctor discovered that the balance was lower when the employer corrected the balance. The court's business was to investigate whether the claim from the employer was clear and due. The employer based its action on the fact that their claim was for damages and that the doctor had acted intentionally. The labor court concluded that the claim was not clear and that the set-off was impermissible.
Good luck, and don't forget to get in touch if you have any questions.
Kind regards,
Christoffer Lewinowitz
Employer lawyer
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