The remuneration is a direct compensation for the work carried out by the salaried worker on behalf of the employer.

In principle, the employer must pay the salary in full at the end of each month and provide a salary slip that contains the calculation method of the salary.

The district court can order the employer to make an attachment of earnings, i.e. to deduct a specified amount from the remuneration of a salaried worker in order to pay a creditor in repayment of the salaried worker's debts.

Who is concerned?

The following are concerned when an attachment of earnings order is made:

• the seizing creditor, i.e. the person that the salaried worker owes money to and who initiates the attachment of earnings procedure;
• the employer (the seized third party), i.e. the person who will process the attachment of earnings order and in particular the Human Resources department which handles the salary payments;
• the salaried worker (the seized debtor), i.e. the person with a debt to a third party and on the salary of whom the attachment is made.

What are the prerequisites?

Processing an attachment of earnings order implies that a district court has approved a related request from a creditor (the seizing creditor) against a salaried worker (the seized debtor).

In addition, the attachment can only be made if there is an employment contract defining the relationship between the employer (the seized third party) and the salaried worker (the seized debtor).

How to proceed

Processing an attachment of earnings order

An attachment of earnings is the procedure through which a creditor blocks in the hands of the employer a legally determined part of the sums due by a salaried worker who does not honour his financial commitments.

When an attachment of earnings order has to be made, it is notified to the employer by the district court.

During the suspension phase, i.e. between notification of the attachment to the employer and the validation of judgement, the employer must:

• send to the court within 8 days of the notification of the attachment order a positive declaration confirming to the judge that the person concerned is working for the employer and indicate:
  • the monthly net remuneration paid;
  • any assignments of remuneration;
• deduct the seized legal amount from the salaried workers net remuneration;
• retain the seized amount whilst awaiting final validation of the judgement.

After validation of the judgement, i.e. when the judge has confirmed that the salaried worker owes the requested amounts, the employer must:

• continue to deduct the seized amounts from the salary of the worker;
• pay them to the seizing creditor until the debt is repaid in full.

Calculating the seizable part of a salary

The seizable part of a salary is determined on the basis of the net monthly salary divided into 5 levels. For each level a seizable part is defined by law as shown in the table below:

In principle, the monthly amounts to be seized are defined by the justice of the peace (magistrate). However, in practice the employer should be in a position to calculate these amounts.

When several attachment of earnings orders have been made on the same salary, the total seizable amount remains unchanged. The levels are calculated according to the total amount of the income seized. The Justice of Peace will determine the proportional amount to be seized for each amount due.