16 yr old first job not being paid correctly

[wondabar]

My DD has managed to get a part-time job starting to work at a new shop in town and has a contract from the company.
She has just received her first pay and has been paid for half the hours that she has done. She has also been told that she will not be paid for her half an hour lunch breaks that she has been having despite not being told this either in person or in the contract. It is a small shop that has just opened and even though she has brought it up with her manager, nothing seems to be being done regarding the extra pay that she is owed. Should we as parents step in? I understand that this may not be what our DD wants but I don't want her to not be paid for the hard work that she has put in. She is very disheartened and reluctant to go in for the next few days before the start of college as she is worried that she will not be paid.

I thought 16 year olds aren't legally allowed to work outside of 7am and 7pm?

Should she be starting work at 6:30am?

@andrainwillmaketheflowersgrow so what happened when a 16 year old was fobbed off or ignored?

They'd be expected to deal with it in the same way as any other employee. Age wouldn't come into it.

So, they could speak to HR, their manager, the head of payroll or another more senior colleague for advice and support. They could (if applicable) go to their union and get help that way.

We just wouldn't even consider speaking to a parent - the conversation would be politely (and swiftly) shut down, and the parent told to get their child to speak to us themselves about any problems.

They can work before 7am if they're above school leaving age.

@andrainwillmaketheflowersgrow not all companies are the same as yours, obviously.

We had to step in for our kids even though the well renowned, professional spa hotel had an HR department and our kids followed the proper procedures.

We phoned their direct manager and told them to sort it out. Miraculous everything was sorted straight away.

I would never try to prevent a parent from showing their child that they had their back. Like I said, we made sure that the kids tried to sort it out themselves because I agree, they need to learn how to do it themselves but sometimes rogue employers take the Micky.

A similar thing happened to my sister. Her daughter went as far as she could with her employer but was fobbed off. My sister called the boss and everything was sorted.

OP please encourage your kid to do it themselves but don't be discouraged from standing up for your child.

Might be a tax code issue then, rather than missing hours

@SkiingIsHeaven which is why I said "it depends on the company"

You shouldn’t need to step in at this point and your DD shouldn’t go in all guns blazing.

It’s very annoying that she hasn’t received the correct pay, but It could be just a genuine oversight. I’ve had the wrong pay on multiple occasions and I’ve always had to fill out a form, get my manager to sign and it HR approve it and then pay me the overdue funds on the next pay day.

DD should speak to her boss about this and hopefully it can be sorted.

Also, it’s very rare that you get paid for lunch breaks so it’s totally normal that she has to take her lunch breaks unpaid. I wouldn’t question this unless she was specifically told she was going to be paid for her lunches and has subsequently not been paid.

As a retail manager, they will not be able to speak to you. I certainly wouldnt have. Recently a 16 yr old was let go and her parent rang us. We didnt even disclose the reason, just said we arent able to speak to you, and that is a more serious situation than short pay.

Get dd to request access to her pay slips. This may be online or if they have wagestream you can so it through there. Legally 16yr olds need a break over 4 hours and it should be paid. Again this may be online through their portal or email hr depending on the size of the company. It may be due to cut off dates for pay. (Most likely) overtime rates wouldnt be a thing, I imagine, but i could be wrong, although I don't know of any retail companies that do.

For your own info, please check this link, you might find that the employer is in breach by requiring 8 hour shifts.... https://www.gov.uk/child-employment/restrictions-on-child-employment

I would encourage her to trust her instincts and leave. Why bother dealing with unscrupulous employers that make pay “errors “ , refuse to give access to payslips and pay below minimum wage.