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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

'forgot' to pay me....

103 replies

poorandpissedoff · 22/09/2016 18:25

Got my pay slip (monthly) today to find due to a massive cock-up on their part, they will be under paying me by £600 tomorrow. I've been told there's nothing they can do and i'll have to wait till next pay day for it to be paid. No compassion what so ever.

AIBU to want to cause hell over this. I refuse to be without half my pay for another 4 weeks! I won't be able to afford to live. Apparently is it the norm for people to wait till their next pay day, even when it's their fault. Norm for them maybe! Is it actually normal to wait?

OP posts:
wherethefuckisthefuckingtuna · 23/09/2016 07:15

They can send you a Faster Payment for that amount. Would arrive within two hours and is a very inexpensive way to transfer cash.

They've fucked up the payroll. Which is a big deal. They need to rectify it immediately.

flowery · 23/09/2016 08:19

"and you're quite within your rights just to up and leave, as this is constructive dismissal"

That is appalling advice. Paying someone a month late on a single occasion is not constructive dismissal. Not even close. If it were months, no sign of the money or it kept happening, and the OP had gone through grievances about it, she might then have an argument for constructive dismissal. But that isn't the case.

Presumably OPs contract says she will be paid on x date each month or similar, in which case it would technically be breach of contract. But there is no suggestion they are not going to pay her, just that it will be late, and by the time OP has raised a grievance etc it will be nearly next pay day.

It's not acceptable at all, and as everyone says, they can make an advance on the money if they wish, so you should absolutely push for that. And I'm not saying don't raise a grievance, you could do that, and certainly should if it keeps happening.

JudyCoolibar · 23/09/2016 08:55

I called payroll and they said as its already processed I'll have to wait to next pay day now.

At this stage it's nothing to do with payroll, it's with accounts: all they have to do is write you out a cheque and sort out it separately with payroll.

I wonder if your boss would find payroll's incompetence so amusing if they overpaid every employee by £1000 next month?

Katherine2626 · 23/09/2016 17:38

A decent company would give a you a cheque/make a bank transfer and you repay them next month. If your company doesn't have £600 to spare they must be in deep financial trouble. I worked with a colleague who was paid only £130 or so one month - major panic, emergency payment made - and then the next month the same thing happened again. The Payroll department were practically on their knees grovelling to apologise, but the Manager arranged another bank transfer for him the same day. How are you supposed to live - do they imagine that you save £600 a month?

LurkingHusband · 23/09/2016 17:40

A decent company would give a you a cheque/make a bank transfer and you repay them next month.

At the risk of sounding a bit dim, why does the OP have any repaying to do ?

CatNip2 · 23/09/2016 18:07

^ - they owe him £600, they gave him an advance of £600 now, at month end he pays back the £600 advance but they also repay him the £600 they owe him.

Quits.

InMyOwnWorld · 23/09/2016 18:24

It happend to me few years back - for 2 weeks I have been with my ex-employer on the phone, via email etc. trying to chase my wages.
I ended up seek some advice and help to wirte a letter about 'unlawful deductions from wages' and the legal conequences that I will act on.

I left the letter in the office at 1pm, I had wages in my bank by 5pm that day!

Memoires · 23/09/2016 18:46

At the very least they should be able to give you a cheque for the 'forgotten' amount. They sound dreadful and should probably be shopped to some authorising body, but I've no idea if there is one, or what it is. If you find out, report them.

CattyMcCatface · 23/09/2016 19:12

No definitely out of order. You should get paid what you are due. There were major cockups in our payroll recently and I heard one lady went down to the offices (about 5 miles away) and demanded her pay. She said she wasn't leaving till she got it! She got her cheque!

SundaeLieIn · 23/09/2016 20:00

Sorry, I haven't read all the responses so this may have already been said but they HAVE to pay you.

I run the payroll for 45 staff and occasionally make a mistake. I have two options: I can run a 'rollback' on that individual and rerun the payroll and submit an RTI adjustment to HMRC and then make the payment via bank transfer (immediate) or I can just manually calculate the payment and make a bank transfer and then put it through the payroll on the next payrun. Either of these options would take about five minutes. There is absolutely NO excuse for not paying people money that they have earned. It says heaps about how much your company values it's employees. Look for another job.

Namechangedforthis4 · 23/09/2016 20:22

Once our firm had a bit of a disaster and bank issues meant we were paid a day late the firm promised to pick up any interest and penalties that resulted. This was what they should be doing a making an emergency payment straight away

mumindoghouse · 23/09/2016 22:22

They are liable if you incur bank charges etc as a result of their breach of contract. They can sort. It is not normal to wait

riceuten · 23/09/2016 22:45

ask for an advance on next month's pay. Ask why they think younshould wait.

Iliveinalighthousewiththeghost · 23/09/2016 23:13

It begs the question what would happen if you conveniently forgot' to go into work one day.
You scratch my back. I'll scratch yours and all that

DisgraceToTheYChromosome · 23/09/2016 23:16

Take your most exuberant and destructive DC into work, put him in the payroll office and say "you have my housekeeping, you fucking feed him/her". A colleeague did this, and had cash transferred in 20 minutes.

Memoires · 24/09/2016 10:16

Exactly. Do that.

Memoires · 24/09/2016 10:17

They have already had your labour. They've got no right to withhold what is in fact your money. Charge them interest.

iMogster · 24/09/2016 10:22

This happened at my place of work. It was a small Couture company and everyone didn't get paid. We ended up being paid about a week late. I was ok, but my colleague went over drawn when her direct debits went out and got charged by the bank. The company paid her bank fee.

user1470269632 · 24/09/2016 11:45

Huh, I very much doubt that if they over paid you, they'd let you wait until
next month to repay the excess! They'd want it back pdq! Angry

EleanorAbernathy · 24/09/2016 12:35

My wages were £300 short a few months ago - it wasn't actually Payroll's cock-up (a court had put an attachment on my wages - it was actually meant to be someone else with the same name and date of birth, so the court's cock up!) but they still managed to sort out a BACS transfer a few days later after an email from my manager to make sure I wasn't left short.

JellyBelli · 24/09/2016 12:41

Contact ACAS;
The Acas helpline number is 0300 123 1100. It is available Monday 8am-8pm, Tuesday 8am-6pm, Wednesday to Friday 8am-8pm and Saturday 9am-1pm.

www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2042

Bloopbleep · 24/09/2016 12:43

You don't happen to work for the BBC do you? They're famous for that trick.

cherrybath · 24/09/2016 13:56

Outrageous that they haven't paid you yet. They are legally obliged to do this. It happened several times to my hairdresser who was working for a salon run by a couple of lawyers. She was regularly paid late, but it wasn't so desperate for her as she and her son lived with her family so no major direct debits going out. I agree with a previous poster, I'd be worried about their cash flow. My hairdresser's employers eventually went into liquidation leaving the staff unpaid.

I suggest that you and as many other employees as possible join a union quickly, if there are enough of you the union will come in and back you up, telling you exactly what you need to do.

cherrybath · 24/09/2016 14:00

And I suggest that you don't accept a cheque which would take days to clear, you need a BACS transfer which they could do immediately. If they are in financial trouble the cheque is no guarantee of payment.

megletthesecond · 24/09/2016 14:03

disgrace that's brilliant Grin .