Overpayment of wage

dkelly95

As an apprentice carpenter, I am currently on my second phase in SOLAS (FAS). When we first started we were told our rate (by the person in charge of wages) and all was in order. So after 11 weeks of payment (the rate which we were told that we would receive), we were told that we had been paid the wrong rate and we had received roughly €30 extra per week and that from then forward we would be receiving the lower rate of pay for a carpenter.
Naturally, all 15 of us, were hugely disappointed at this as we were now losing out on 30 per week due to a 'clerical error', but we accepted that a mistake had been made so nothing was made of it. We were then told that we would NOT be deducted for the overpayment received, which too was fine.
The next day, the centre manager met us to tell us that we would in fact be deducted for the overpayment, a further 30 along with the 30 we were losing due to the error ( a total of €60 less than we were told we would be earning).
I'm just wondering is this possible to do so? Can they deduct us this much, considering that we were told we would be receiving the original amount and are now being penalized €60 per week? That's not mentioning the fact that €190 is barely livable, especially as some of the apprentices have a child, rent, car etc...
Has anyone any information on what we can do about this or have we got any rights in relation to this.
Thanks for reading this and any information/knowledgeable would be greatly appreciated.

treade1

They are entitled to reclaim the money but there is scope for negotiation as to how quickly it is repaid e.g. they could agree to reclaim the money owed over 22 weeks instead of 11.

This sort of thing is covered under The Payment of Wages Act.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_rights_and_conditions/pay_and_employment/pay_slip.html

dkelly95

treade1 wrote: »

They are entitled to reclaim the money but there is scope for negotiation as to how quickly it is repaid e.g. they could agree to reclaim the money owed over 22 weeks instead of 11.

This sort of thing is covered under The Payment of Wages Act.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_rights_and_conditions/pay_and_employment/pay_slip.html

Thanks for the reply. The reason for this amount is that we only have 9/10 weeks left before we finish up in the centre and are back to our employers, I am assuming this is how the will retrieve the money.