Can I reduce my underperforming employee’s salary?
by Claire Stewart on 20/01/10 at 8:00 am
5 comments
Question 1: Have you ever wondered if you can pay your employee less if she’s doing less work? For example, your pregnant employee may not be able to perform her usual duties…can you pay her a portion of her full salary until she’s back “in the swing of things”?
Question 2: My employee was injured on duty. If he returns to work, but only performs light duties, can I reduce his salary? What should I do if I don’t have light-duty work for him?
I get this labour question a lot!
This certainly isn’t the first question I’ve received concerning the same, or at least a similar, issue.
Do you know the answer to these questions? In other words…are you doing things the right way! I hope so, or you could be guilty of unfair labour practice. And the courts won’t take kindly to that.
Ensure you’re staying on the right side of the law by reading what our expert had to say.
Answer:
You can’t reduce the employee’s salary unilaterally. You must discuss the issue with him and get his full agreement in writing.
If you don’t have light duties for him to perform, and can’t find alternatives to preserve his employment, you can consider dismissing him for incapacity due to ill-health. Given that he was injured on duty, you shouldn’t take such a drastic measure lightly, and it must really be your last resort.
Reproduced courtesy of Fleet Street Publications- HR for Managers newsletter.
Claire Stewart is the founder of PeopleWise, an HR and Employment consulting service. Like Neo in the Matrix, Claire sees through the convoluted mess of SA employment law and makes sense of it for you, loyal Ideate reader. View more articles by Claire Stewart.
Tags: Termination of employment
Sarah-Jane Bosch
Jan 20th, 2010
Hi Claire
Please contact me on the above email when you can.
Thanks
Sarah-Jane Bosch
Jan 20th, 2010
Meant to add I’m from Fleet Sreet Publications, as mentioned at the end of your blog.
Gareth Cotten
Jan 20th, 2010
Uh-oh. That sounds like a headmaster’s “Claire, please step into my office.” Maybe it wasn’t reproduced with their permission
Claire
Jan 22nd, 2010
Sarah-Jane asked me to please add Fleet Steet Publications website address to the post- its http://www.fsp.co.za.
I’ve been a subscriber to fsp for their publications and emails for years and find them excellent. If you’re a business owner or manager who deals with various aspects of HR then its well worth checking out their website.
forex robot
Feb 2nd, 2010
Keep posting stuff like this i really like it