Where a salary reduction is unilaterally imposed without any consultation or without the employee's agreement, an employee has a number of potential legal avenues available to him/her to seek redress:
Claim breach of contract
An employee could take a claim for breach of contract to court and seek an injunction to prevent the unilateral variation by his/her employer.
Claim unlawful deduction of wages
An employee could take a claim to a Rights Commissioner under the Payment of Wages Act 1991 claiming that there has been an unlawful deduction made to his/her remuneration.
Claim constructive dismissal
An employee could argue that his/her position has become untenable by reason of the unilateral change to his/her contractual terms and that the employee had no alternative but to consider himself/herself constructively dismissed. Constructive dismissal claims are brought to either a Rights Commissioner or the Employment Appeals Tribunal under the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977-2007. Care would need to be exercised in deciding to take this approach as an employee would need to consider utilising and exhausting an internal grievance procedure prior to claiming constructive dismissal.
Claim the existence of a trade dispute
An employee could bring a trade dispute under the Industrial Relations Acts 1946-2004.