Employee's remuneration and bailiff enforcement

An entrepreneur hiring employees may encounter his various difficult situations regarding the attachment of employees' wages. One of them is bailiff enforcement. The employer has no choice but to comply with the bailiff's decision. However, in such cases, it must not forget about the basic provisions - the Labor Code - which indicate the principles of protection of the employee's remuneration.

Bailiff enforcement - what can be deducted from the salary?

According to Art. 87 par. 1 of the Labor Code, from remuneration for work - after deduction of social security contributions and advance payments for personal income tax - are subject to deduction:

1. sums enforced under enforcement orders for the satisfaction of maintenance payments,

2. sums enforced under enforcement orders to cover debts other than maintenance payments,

3. cash advances granted to the employee,

4. the financial penalties provided for in Art. 108 of the Labor Code (for failure by an employee to comply with occupational health and safety or fire regulations, leaving work without justification, showing up for work under the influence of alcohol or drinking alcohol while working).

Bailiff enforcement was not mentioned directly in the above points, but it certainly relates to the issues indicated in the first and second points.

Important! In the case of bailiff enforcement, the deduction may be made up to 50% of the remuneration, as provided for in Art. 87 par. 3 KP. However, in the case of enforcement of maintenance payments - up to 3/5 of the remuneration.

It is worth emphasizing that pursuant to Art. 87 par. 5 of the Code, an award from the company's bonus fund, additional annual remuneration and receivables due to employees for profit sharing or in the balance surplus are subject to enforcement by a bailiff for the satisfaction of maintenance payments up to the full amount.

The legislator in par. 8 of this article emphasizes that deductions from the employee's remuneration in the month in which the remuneration components are paid for periods longer than one month are made on the total amount of remuneration that takes into account these remuneration components.

Bailiff enforcement from remuneration - employer's obligations

As is clear from par. 881 par. 3 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the bailiff calls on the employer not to pay the debtor, apart from the part free from attachment, any remuneration, within the limits specified in the second paragraph, but:

• transferred the seized remuneration directly to the enforcing creditor, notifying the bailiff of the first payment, or
• transferred the seized remuneration to the bailiff in the event that another bailiff is or will be subject to the remuneration in the further course of the enforcement proceedings, and the remuneration in the due part is not sufficient to cover all the enforced due benefits.

Importantly, depending on the circumstances, the bailiff may call the employer to transfer him the directly seized remuneration.

In addition, in such a situation, the bailiff calls the employer to:

• presented, for the period of three months preceding the seizure, for each month separately, a breakdown of the debtor's periodical remuneration for work and, separately, his income from all other grounds;
• stated in what amount and on what dates the seized remuneration will be transferred to the creditor;
• in the event of obstacles to the payment of remuneration for work, he made a statement about the type of these obstacles, and in particular, provided whether other persons are claiming their rights, whether and in what court the case for seized remuneration is pending and whether and for what claims the bailiff has been referred to the seized remuneration by other creditors.

The employer is obliged to immediately notify the bailiff and the creditor of any change in the circumstances mentioned above.