Some HR professionals make flippant staff salary deductions their stock in trade. They give HR a bad name by implementing poor practices in the form of fines and unnecessary salary deductions.

So, I was presented with 2 scenarios with regards to 2 staff. The first staff had worked a few months but their appointment had not yet been confirmed. The second staff was a ‘corper’, the term used to describe someone embarking on the mandatory 1 year of service required of all university graduates in Nigeria.

The first staff needed to take 5 working days off for their father’s burial. On proceeding for the burial, the HR Manager informed them that the 5 days off will be deducted from their salary, seeing they were not yet entitled to annual leave.

The second staff, the corper, had started working with the firm several months before they started their service year. On commencing their service, they will need a half-day off every week as part of the mandatory community development (CD) requirement. Responding to this, the HR Manager advised management to prorate the corper’s salary, to account for the weekly half-day off.

My opinion was a no-brainer.

Personally, it would not even cross my mind to make any deductions in either scenario.

Why? Because, for starters, there should be a policy for personal emergencies and an agreed salary for corpers taking into account the nuances surrounding their employment.

No one plans for personal emergencies. Decent HR policies provide for ‘casual leave’ which is typically 5 working days in the year. Casual leave is leave that can be taken for personal reasons not stipulated in company policies. They are particularly useful for employees who have no annual leave days because they are newly employed or for employees who have already exhausted their annual leave days.

For the corper, my line of questioning made my decision easy. I asked if the staff was ever asked to work extra hours. It was confirmed that the corper was expected to work late and sometimes on weekends.

When organisations have unforseen deadlines or emergencies and require extra effort and time, employees are expected to go the extra mile and are often not compensated for these circumstances. So when employees ask for personal days off, it is only reasonable to grant these requests.

Trust me, when you have irresponsible staff, you will know. The odd day off for a personal emergency is not an indication.

Salary deductions are only legal for unreasonable unapproved, absences or gross negligence that result in expenses. Even with negligence, it can still be illegal to make deductions without regulatory backing. Deductions made as fines are also illegal and many times inhumane.

Salary deductions are outright unreasonable for illness and personal emergencies.