to think my work should make an emergency payment?

[Stinkle]

My company cocked up my May pay and I was paid nearly £500 short.

It's taken forever to sort out, but they've finally admitted it's their mistake however, they are refusing to pay the shortfall until the end of this month.

We're not talking a few pounds, I only work part time so £500 is a big wedge of my wages to go without for a month, so I want, well need actually, them to do a transfer today.

They are refusing and will add it to June's payroll.

Is it really that hard for companies to do ad-hoc bank transfers?

Is it reasonable/normal to wait until the next payroll when there are mistakes with pay?

I'm really bloody annoyed, I've got lots on this weekend and next weekend and I had budgeted to ensure we had cash and this has really fucked everything up

[LadySybilLikesCake]

X post, sorry. I'm so pleased it's sorted

[Stinkle]

BINGO!

It's there.

Cinderella (DD2) shall go to the ball (One Direction concert)

Thanks all

[Annietheacrobat]

Fantastic news

[Annietheacrobat]

Ps - am I the only poster who thought you were going off for a shit rather than a sit in!

[BeCool]

they don't even have to do a calculation - surely they just could have made you a "payment on account" of £500 and done all the calculations later.

Glad to hear you have been paid OP.

(X)P earned about £1100 PCM and used to pay for expenses and get them back at the end of the month as per "policy". Usually expenses were company things he paid for (because the company didn't have an account etc) rather than his own reimbursable expenses. One month he paid out over £600 (over half his salary) and was expected to wait a month to be reimbursed.

I suggested he asked them to reimburse him straight away but he wouldn't. So he couldn't cover his own cost/bills/travel etc for the month - guess who had to pay for those? I was furious as it certainly wasn't my role in life to fund his employer, which was what I was often doing.

Cunting company & their stupid take the piss financial mgmt. It didn't occur to them that perhaps their policy might not work so well for the employee who gets paid less than a third of the other "expense" claimers!

Some people have no idea.

[TheSarcasticFringehead]

Great news- we're also going to the One Direction concert tonight! My work did one cock up my expenses but paid it by cheque the next day thankfully.

[Floggingmolly]

I used to run a payroll; it's neither complicated nor difficult . Insist that the shortfall is made available to you today, op, either by BACS or cheque. You should not have to bear the brunt of her mistake; frankly, the only reason not to sort it before the next payroll run is that a correction now highlights her incompetence mistake to whoever has to sign it off.
Tough shit.

[Floggingmolly]

Ah, too late

[pluCaChange]

Congratulations!

...but keep the paper trail going. She cocked up twice for you this month, and it might happen again...

[mswibble]

have experienced this with one of staff members this week.

Sadly all that has happened is that I have come to realise that other departments will gladly shit on you from high, deny all their mistakes and no matter how much you try and explain what has happened, including providing proof - you get a bollocking for being "confrontational". Damn right i was confrontational, a member of staff wasn't paid through no fault of her own and your response was to shrug your shoulders and say she has to wait until the end of June. A week later she still hasn't got any money.

[Mintyy]

Happy for you op but absolutely horrified for reallyshakenup - what on earth are you going to do? Is yours a big employer? How on earth can companies get away with this!

[mswibble]

Mine employs nearly 2500 ... they couldn't give less of a shit if they tried to be honest.

[Bearbehind]

Ps - am I the only poster who thought you were going off for a shit rather than a sit in!

Nope- I thought exactly the same

Glad it's sorted.

[PomeralLights]

I'm shocked by this thread tbh. I work for a big accountancy firm and once, payroll for everyone in the company was delayed from a Friday to the following Monday due to an admin cock-up.
There was an outcry. Everyone who was in their overdraft (whether or not being in overdraft was due to late salary) was told they were entitled to claim 3 days worth of interest and charges back. Any failed DDs, charges from companies due to late payment etc were reimbursed. Credit card interest was paid if the late payment had delayed you paying off the card. None of this was because the company is 'nice' it's because when nearly all your employees are accountants or lawyers, you know you can't get away with this shit without being sued, by everyone. Not worth it.

Staff were still annoyed because it was pointed out the company would have earned interest on the additional money in the bank account, so the company did a calculation of the interest earned and donated it to charity.

You are absolutely within your rights to claim back any financial hardship you've suffered as a result of this through the small claims court, regardless of how quickly (or not) they sorted the mistake. Did you have to use mobile wifi in Spain to get through to them? If you're charged for that you should claim that back - overseas usage is expensive! Don't let them take advantage. If you have a good relationship with your boss, I can understand you might not want to sue the company, but at least point out that you could, so he gives the finance lady a proper disciplinary.

[Stinkle]

Thank you!

Yes, I will be talking to my boss about this seriously on Monday. To be fair to him, he is absolutely brilliant about stuff like this - he's actually a friend of DH. As far as he (and I) knew we'd sorted this out. Once he knew she hadn't done it/was refusing to do it he sorted it straight away.

As for the finance lady, people's pay is not the time to be awkward or refuse to admit your mistakes.

We shared a villa with friends and hired a car. I discovered the missing pay on Friday when I went to get some Euros out of the ATM and the balance was a lot lower than it should have been. Fortunately, we had food in the villa as we'd planned a BBQ anyway and the hire car meant we had the means to get back to the airport, but we could have been absolutely stuffed, stuck in Spain with 2 children.

I haven't incurred any costs fortunately, DH's pay covered the bills due out and the wifi was free (if rickety) so I could get online and check my bank and send emails.

We knew this month was going to be tight with a holiday, 1D and then we're away next weekend, and had budgeted hard so a missing £500 pushed me over the limit.

It's also a really stupid mistake for her to have made - why she deducted me any holiday pay at all I don't know, doing it twice is beyond me.

She's made mistakes before, fucking up someone's pay has serious consequences and her attitude stunk, she needs a proper disciplinary

Ps - am I the only poster who thought you were going off for a shit rather than a sit in!

I had to read it a couple of times.

reallyshakenup I really, really, hope you get it sorted. There's me panicking over a One Direction concert and you are really suffering

[Helpys]

Reallyshaken
I would keep on asking. They can't do that!

[reallyshakenup]

stinkle great news you've got your pay.

I have been told I will have to wait for mine until next month. They adamantly refuse to do a BACS transfer or a cheque despite the fact I know they could easily do this, it's a huge organisation.

My manager has offered to pay me my wages from his own personal bank account. However it wasn't his error and I don't feel comfortable about him doing this so have politely declined.

Luckily my sister has transferred some cash into my account to keep me going it took her all of 2 minutes to do it online!

[Helpys]

I'm glad it's been resolved. I would, with your managers support, make a big deal about it though especially as it's a big organisation.

[Mintyy]

How nice of your manager!

But seriously? I'm utterly scandalised that a huge organisation, or any organisation for that matter, can get away with this .

[Chippednailvarnish]

Reallystinks start looking for a new job...

[emsiewill]

I am a director of a small company and would never ever allow this to happen. I feel personally responsible for my staff & wouldn't be able to sleep if I thought they were short because someone else was being stubborn / awkward. I would pay them the money myself while investigating if necessary.

It just wouldn't happen. But when there are only 9 people in the company, everyone is an individual. It obviously isn't the same in big companies, people stop being humans and start being a number.

Glad you are sorted OP & reallyshaken hope you get sorted soon.

[prh47bridge]

Employers get away with not paying their staff and the law allows them to do this

No the law does not allow them to do this. But you have to take action to enforce your rights. No-one else will enforce your rights for you unless you are in a union.

I would echo the advice given to the OP. Point out to them that they are in breach of contract and that you will take legal advice unless it is refunded immediately. Tell them also that you will expect them to refund any bank charges you have incurred as a result of their failure to pay and that you will also expect adequate compensation if your credit rating has been damaged. And personally I wouldn't back down on any of that. If they simply paid the missing wages I would still take them to court for the losses you have incurred as a result of their breach of contract.

[PomeralLights]

reallyshaken have you incurred any cash expenses because of the delay? If you have you could consider writing them a "letter before action" (look it up online). You can write it yourself. I'm not giving legal advice here or anything (!) but if it was me, I would do it - for the price of a piece of paper and a stamp you can make them aware you're not easily fucked over.

Most companies would stump up after receiving an official complaint / note of action, I would have thought.

[ginnybag]

Yeah, she was trying to hide her own mistake.

Part of my job is similar to hers, and she could've fixed that in ten minutes. or less.

She only didn't because then the second payment to you would have shown on the bank statements and she didn't want to have to explain her error to the MD when he asked about it.

Still not a good reason - and now she's going to be explaining both the error and the shitty attitude to him. Her issue, not yours.

I second a PP dad - in business, especially a small business, it's staff first and EVERYTHING else second. Even HMRC will stand that as a reason for late payment of their bills!!

[Rainbunny]

This article was helpful in explaining possible courses of action:

www.theguardian.com/money/work-blog/2012/jun/28/your-rights-employers-dont-pay