An employee who has been receiving an additional payment from 2003 to date for additional duties/responsibilities has now received a letter advising them that this allowance with be withdrawn as it does not meet Policy/Procedures. May an allowance be withdrawn without any negotiations/discussions and with no Policy/Procedures available?

If the additional duties and the basis on which the allowance is paid is clearly documented or otherwise identified, then the employer may be entitled to withdraw the allowance if the duties are genuinely no longer required.

However, an "allowance" that has been in place for 8 years is, due to the passage of time if nothing else, now more likely to be considered base pay. Therefore the most prudent approach for an employer would be to treat the removal of the allowance as it would treat a proposed reduction in base pay.

There have been many salary reductions implemented by employers in Ireland since the economic downturn and many of these have been successfully introduced, sometimes even on