§ 71. Mr. RENDALLasked whether an employer who has neglected or refused to make the legal deduction of fourpence per week from his workman's wages or to affix a stamp, either for that amount or for his own contribution, to his workman's card, is entitled to deduct from a later week's wages of the same workman not only the prescribed fourpence, but fourpence for each past week during which he neglected or refused to make the deduction; and, if the answer is in the affirmative, under what clause the employer has such power; and, if in the negative, whether the Commissioners propose to prosecute in such cases, and what is the remedy of the workman for the illegal deduction?
§ Mr. MASTERMANThe answer to the first part of the question is in the negative. The Third Schedule to the Act expressly enacts that in the circumstances stated no contributions may be deducted from the wages of subsequent weeks. As regards the second part of the question a workman from whose wages an excessive deduction has been made, can recover the amount as unpaid wages by summary process under the Employers and Workmen Act, 1875.