Attachment of Salary and Wages

Only the proportion fixed by the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law, which leaves the debtor a protected minimum for subsistence; the remainder of the wage cannot be touched by an ordinary creditor. The employer withholds the attachable portion from each wage payment and remits it to the enforcement file, and the deduction continues month by month until the debt is satisfied or the attachment is lifted. Maintenance claims are subject to a special regime that is more favourable to the maintenance creditor. Creditors should plan for gradual recovery rather than a lump sum.

The attachable portion of the wage is a single limited fund, and it cannot be multiplied by the number of enforcement files. Where several creditors have requested attachment, the deductions are shared out according to the ranking rules of the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law rather than paid to everyone at once, so a later creditor may have to wait until earlier files have been satisfied, while maintenance claims benefit from their special regime. For a foreign creditor the value of a salary attachment therefore depends on what is already lodged against the debtor, which the enforcement office's inquiries may reveal.

The employer must withhold the attachable portion from each wage payment and remit it directly to the enforcement file, and must respond to the enforcement office's notice about the debtor's employment and pay. These obligations are statutory, not optional, and an employer that ignores the notice or continues to pay the full wage to the employee may itself face liability under the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law. Creditors should identify the debtor's actual workplace as precisely as possible, since the attachment is addressed to that employer and is only as effective as the employer's compliance.

Yes, that is the normal case. When the payment order is served and the debtor does not object within the objection period, the enforcement proceeding becomes final and the creditor can request attachment of the debtor's assets, including a portion of salary where the debtor is an individual. The request goes through the enforcement office, which notifies the workplace; the creditor cannot approach the employer directly. If the debtor did object, the objection must first be removed through the appropriate proceedings. Provisional attachment before finality is a separate precautionary measure with its own conditions.