If an employee makes mistake due to carelessness or bad judgement that costs company money should his/her pay be docked to make up the loss?

No.

In many many cases, employee mistakes could lead to losses which would essentially bankrupt the employee for years and force him or her into indentured servitude.

Consider the following scenario: I once was asked to diagnose a BMW M-coupe with a reported problem of a slipping clutch under hard acceleration. In essence, the car owner was telling me to drive the living snot out of the car and figure out what was wrong. Had I crashed the car while attempting to duplicate the slipping clutch, the replacement cost would have been over $50,000, easily 1.5 years of my salary.

That's why businesses have business insurance to cover them when such things happen.

This post was edited by OldSchoolTheSKOSlives at December 20, 2016 10:14 AM MST

I essence it seems fair but the answer is no.   If you're going to engage in business then you except the risk of loss.   Having employees face financial penalties for their mistakes opens the door for way too much abuse and ripping-off of employees.

You should however be able to be fired for it.

Hello K:

Boxing matches are graded on the 10 point MUST system..  Business should be graded the same way.  You START out with a perfect 10..  Therefore, EVERY time a company DOESN'T act PERFECTLY, by the nature of the grading system, SOMEBODY failed at their job.  Should those people be docked??  How do you FIND those people, anyway?  You don't, of course, because those people are everybody..  NONE of us is perfect at their job.

But, if a company is concerned about those things, they can CONTRACT the work out, and make the contractor responsible for his mistakes.. The downside, of course, is the contractor ISN'T your employee..  He shows UP when he wants, and goes HOME when he wants.  But, if he BUSTS something, you can make him pay for it..

excon This post was edited by excon at December 20, 2016 10:23 AM MST

If it is a mistake then no. If deliberate then yes and or prosecution depending on what was done.

He probably should be fired.

Definitely warned.  The circumstances are not clear so there is no way to answer this.   Was he high?  Was he just new or made a mistake anyone could make?   Or was he just bored, unconcerned, surly and tired? 

I need to have more info. 

Oh yeah.  HOW MUCH MONEY?   That makes a difference too.  

One time I was in college and I was cleaning around a new shipment of vases and knocked into one and the whole display, which was many rows of pottery went down like a Domino effect.     I must have busted about $2,000 worth of stuff.    No one said a word.   I didn't even have to clean it up.  I guess they had great insurance. 

I would have fired my ass right there.