Can an employer deduct pay if I take action short of a strike?
Unfortunately yes, since action short of a strike constitutes a breach of contract on the grounds of what is called “partial performance”, enabling an employer to withhold payment. An employer who wishes to seek legal redress for partial performance has two options: (a) Accept partial performance but seek damages for failure to perform An employer may accept partial performance and just seek to deduct a proportion of the pay owed for each day of partial performance. In doing so an employer will be required to justify the amount deducted since an employer could be sued if they deduct too much. The problem for the employer will be proving the extent of their losses as a result of the action. For this reason employers seldom adopt this option. Pay docking of this sort has only occurred once. This docking was carried out by management at London Metropolitan University during a local dispute over the imposition of new contracts of employment which NATFHE won. We are currently engaged in lit
