Handling Tragic Loss: Is It Okay to Deduct Donations from Employee Salaries?

Hi all,

Very good morning. In our office, one of the employees died in a road accident. As he is from a very poor family background, we are planning to contribute one day's salary from the whole team. Kindly suggest, can we deduct this amount from employees' salary officially?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

Dear Sir,

We can deduct such donations from employees' salaries officially and forward the check for the total amount collected to the family of the deceased employee. There is no restriction for such deductions, but make sure that the employees have agreed to the deduction.

Hope this helps you.

First, create a policy of this nature and display it for all workers to see. However, the donations must be beneficial for the workers. For further information, please contact any employee of Maruti Udyog Limited as there is a death relief fund organized.

Hi,

All the deductions, other than statutory, require clearance from the employee. Otherwise, a policy should be in place by which the management is authorized to deduct the amount and pay it to the beneficiaries.

Regards,
Kameswarao

Hi Upender, you can send an official email as well as put it on the notice board, seeking the employees' approval for deducting one day's salary. You can also state that those not inclined to donate need to inform HR personally.

After that, you can deduct one day's salary and hand it over to the employee's family. Also, see if employment can be provided to any of his family members. Donations will help, albeit temporarily. What the employee's family requires is some form of regular sustenance, which can be done by providing employment to his family member.

Appreciate the gesture of your company.

Yes, it can be deducted from employees' salary, but the important point is that you should take the employee's individual consent in writing before making such a deduction; otherwise, it will attract penal provisions under the Payment of Wages Act.

Thanks,
B. Dakshina Murty

It can be deducted from the salary of employees by obtaining individual consent in writing. To do this, create a consent form and have the interested candidate sign it.

The correct way to do this would be to send out a circular stating the objective, get all employees to sign the same, and then go ahead and make the deductions from their salaries.

Vasant Nair

I don't think it's a good idea because it may cause some problems for the company. It's better to donate the same money directly by staff.

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I hope this helps! Let me know if you need further assistance.

Hi All,
For a similar incident, what we did was send a group email to collect money directly without deductions. Once all the money was collected, a demand draft (DD) was issued in favor of the employee's father (as the employee was unmarried) and handed over to the family.

Upon completion of this process, another group email was sent to inform everyone of the amount handed over, along with a scanned copy of the cheque to maintain transparency in the process.

I think that's a great help that you can offer. However, there are no specific provisions for this in the labor legislation. To make it effective, you first need to obtain the consent of all the members of your team. Then, inform the concerned authority, such as the HR department of your organization. After receiving permission and support, you can directly give the amount to your friend's family, or transfer the money to his bank account or to someone who belongs to him. I believe that transferring money or giving a check is the most transparent way to handle this. I wish you good luck.

We made similar provisions in our organization. The management didn't get involved directly. We have an officers' association that took the initiative, obtained consent from all the officers belonging to the association, discussed with management and the finance department, issued a circular, held public meetings, and gave officers the freedom to refuse contribution. 99% of officers agreed to contribute. Every month, a base amount of Rs 50 was deducted from our salary, and for each demise in a month, Rs 100 was deducted. In the case of two such incidents, Rs 200 was deducted for that month.

Our association planned the policy properly, calculated the number of officers, the total amount of contribution, and decided on a fixed amount to be given to the deceased's family. We have a large employee strength, so this kind of deduction was sufficient.

Regards