Quick query.

Mrs B has a friend that works in an old folks home.
Whilst cleaning a room where the room stank of urine, she used an air freshener spray.
When she went out and shut the door, the fire alarm went off.

Fire brigade turned out and went away and the company that run the home are blaming her for setting it off and want to deduct the FB fee £200 from her wages.

I can’t see that as legal in any situation and would like to advise her a bit in the hope she will stand up for herself against what is quite an unfair practice.
So,

Legal or not ?

Maybe the employer should think about why it provided such a product if it sets their fire alarm off ? Did they provide the air freshener ?

What does it say in her contract about such occurrences?

Who provided the air freshener?

Was she trained on the use of the air freshener, I.e. instructed not to use it near detectors?

It was the companies own provided air freshener, as for contract I have no idea but in 40 yrs working I’ve yet to see a contract that states if you set a fire alarm off you pay the fire brigade.

Sounds like shoddy practices to me but would like opinions or confirmation.

My advise would be to tell them to **** off, but that might not be the best advise for all ! lol.

Employer can deduct money if its in the contract. She needs to see if it was specifically in there.

BUT

£200 is a lot and would take her pay below minium wage which they can’t do. So probably not legal anyway.

https://www.peninsulagrouplimited.com/blog/ask-the-hr-expert-damage-to-company-property/

What tomd said. Max 10% of wages per pay period as well. What’s the damage/loss/cost the company incurred to warrant this deduction? Pisstakers.

We’ve had everything from kettles to wind to cooking in neighbouring buildings set off ours at work. Regularly maintained and tested. Thank goodness it’s not connected to the fire brigade.

Jesus, if my employers did that I’d have been docked thousands by this point… once forgot to cancel an order for several thousand pounds of cut and dressed stone that I’d been told was no longer required. Of course it turned up one day and was non refundable as it was custom cut to measure… 4k down the drain.

These things happen, I barely even got bollocked for it, her employer sounds like a tight arse to the extreme.

Not a chance they can legally do this IMO

she needs to join a union – or preferably get a job with a decent company.

she needs to join a union – or preferably get a job with a decent company.

She works in the care sector, the former won’t help, the latter is unlikely. Not everyone works in the sort of privileged employment rights environment you do.

Of course a union will help care home workers – more needed there than in the NHS

I have also worked for care homes in the private sector – they vary tremendously in their treatment of staff, professionalism of HR and adherence to the law. Decent care home companies exist.

Not employment advice sorry

Was this in a bedroom or a communal area? Only reason is that if it was a bedroom it shouldn’t have operated the ARC on the fire panel so the alarm is incorrect.

Also for the fire service to charge they must have had a lot of false alarms and wasted call outs. And I mean a lot….

This again potentially points to the fire alarm and fire management not being set up correctly.

Seems like any blame is being placed on the wrong person