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AIBU?

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Original poster

To be angry work won't pay me?

65 replies

Icklepickle101 · 04/07/2017 09:02

I work part time in a small company 15> people from 1st June I started working 10 more hours per week and had 25% pay rise. Work were aware because of their request for more hours, I needed to put DS in nursery which was going to cost £450 a month. Payday came and I got paid the same as the month before, leaving me approx £600 short.

I raised it with the accountant who said MD hadn't told him to adjust it and he couldn't add it until next payday as the payroll deadline had passed. I checked yesterday and MD still hadn't confirmed new salary so will chase him later today.

Where do I stand with the missing money? I really need it to as I have £10 in my bank due to paying the nursery fees. I tho guy perhaps I could raise an invoice for the extra hours and get them to pay it like that (I'll sort out the tax as do some self employed work anyway) or is it easy for them to do an adjustment and just being difficult about it?

OP posts:
Original poster
Icklepickle101 · 04/07/2017 12:53

Neither of them are in but i just did a conference call and both are saying it's not possible due to tax/hmrc implications. I suggested he spoke to the payroll company to see if they can help and to call me back by 2.

How am I meant to live on £10?! Luckily my child benefit goes in Monday but I shouldn't have to rely on that money to live Angry

OP posts:
Whenyouseeit · 04/07/2017 13:06

Ring your bank and explain your employer messed up your wages. They should help. Ask your MD or accountant to speak to ypur bank and confirm. I had to do that once as a manager after a massive payroll messup and I couldnt persuade them to do an emergency payment. Employee had poor credit history and payroll mess up meant she couldnt pay mortgage. They called me via switchboard to confirm my identity and they gave her an overdraft for the full amount.

The HMRC complication is you are fined a small amount for late payments. Not a good enough excuse

ThomasRichard · 04/07/2017 13:17

Tough bananas that it's a bit of a pain for them. They have made a mess, they need to clear it up. It should be to their disadvantage, not yours. It's perfectly possible.

MrJollyLivesNextDoor · 04/07/2017 13:27

They can 'advance' you though

It can then be sorted out via the payroll later

You have been underpaid, insist they either write you a cheque or do a bank transfer straight away as you have no money to live on due to their error

MrJollyLivesNextDoor · 04/07/2017 13:29

In fact it's perfectly possible to roll back the payroll for one employee in order to adjust any pay errors

Don't be fobbed off by them

eternalnamechange · 04/07/2017 13:58

Don't let them off with this. My company messed up all the wages a few months ago, and had it sorted the next day, telling us to contact them if we had incurred any bank charges, etc. If I can transfer £25 to a friend in 20 seconds, they can sort you out. Chancers!

Original poster
Icklepickle101 · 04/07/2017 14:49

They've just called back and said their hands and tied, there is nothing they can do and I'll have to arrange an overdraft. Fuck.

OP posts:
ThisBabyIsAnOctopus · 04/07/2017 14:53

They are lying to you. Can you go over their heads?

ThisBabyIsAnOctopus · 04/07/2017 14:54

Do you have a HR Dept?

HelenaDove · 04/07/2017 14:55

Why the fuck should you use your overdraft and go into debt because they are too damn lazy to correct their mistake.

Time for some work to rule on your part and if they want any favours in future ........remember this.

melissasummerfield · 04/07/2017 14:57

Hi, this would be classed as unlaw witholding of wages and they are not allowed to do it! I worked in payroll for years and they absolutely can correct this on a secondary payrun. Why should you have to go into debt because they are incompetent?

KimmySchmidt1 · 04/07/2017 15:06

Don't take out short term credit, you shouldn't have to - they must pay you for the work you are doing. they can easily raise a cheque. Explain the dire straits they have put you in and ask them to put it right. I don't care how small a business it is, they cannot mess around with peoples' livelihoods - paying staff appropriately and on time is a fundamental part of the company's job - even in insolvency unpaid labour ranks above all other creditors. it is completely dishonourable to leave you short.

Original poster
Icklepickle101 · 04/07/2017 15:17

I am HR, there is no one above the MD as he owns the company. I have acsess to the online banking to pay invoices for team building/office supplies. Would I be wrong to raise an invoice for my extra hours owed and pay myself?

OP posts:
ApollO88 · 04/07/2017 15:20

I know this won't help the lack of cash situation but could you tell them that you will take the overtime owed back as lieu time so they have option of paying you or you take the time owed to you off. Will that prompt them to cough up?

ApollO88 · 04/07/2017 15:21

I wouldn't recommend invoicing them, they could get seriously pissed at you and accuse you of stealing. (Which you aren't as they owe it to you but they could take it the wrong way)

BeachyKeen · 04/07/2017 15:26

I'd be telling them straight that you won't very doing overtime in the future if they don't sort this now

hellhasnofurylikeahungrywoman · 04/07/2017 15:33

Contact ACAS and check out your rights under Part II Employment Rights Act 1996

ComputerUserNotTrained · 04/07/2017 15:36

I'm fairly sure that if you paid yourself, you'd leave yourself open to allegations of, er, something. Don't do that.

They are lying though when they claim their hands are tied. Even the most intransigent, policy-fixated organisation should be able to find £600 to pay their own staff, especially if it's not the employee's fault that she's not been paid properly.

CotswoldStrife · 04/07/2017 15:50

It can be done, they need to change their figures that they give to HMRC and pay extra for a quick bank transfer but it can be done. Don't do it yourself.

www.gov.uk/payroll-errors/correcting-pay-or-deductions

Autofillcontact · 04/07/2017 15:51

You can't pay yourself as you wouldn't be able to approve it for payment- assume you're joking anyway! I would be fuming at this- I can't even tell you how angry. Do you have a grievience procedure? Grievience against everyone. It will waste their time and make you feel a tiny bit better

user1493630944 · 04/07/2017 17:14

It definitely can be done. On 2 occasions with different employers I was underpaid. In both cases a cash advance was made by bank transfer. The next payslip then included the all the correct figures including back pay, tax etc but deducted the cash advance at the end. Does your company have a cash flow problem? That is the only reason i can think of for refusing to deal with it in this way. Maybe time to look for another job.

donquixotedelamancha · 04/07/2017 17:54

"Neither of them are in but i just did a conference call and both are saying it's not possible due to tax/hmrc implications."

Just one more person saying this is total crap. Used to work in personnel; absolutely normal practice to do an emergency payment. I've never heard of an employer refusing when the employee was in difficulty. Them not wanting to pay a modest charge for the cockup is not your problem.

Go to sort out the overdraft or loan in work time.

Invoice them for the charges.
Get written evidence of everything.
Contact ACAS as suggested above.
Start looking for a better job.

pluck · 04/07/2017 17:55

Absolute bastards. If someone has to pay for this mistake, it should be the company, otherwise YOU are paying for THEIR mistake.

I once worked in a company where the FD would make "mistakes" with cheques, and one days when I caught the mistake in time, he gave me a look of real hatred. I realised that, even if the first mistake wasn't a mistake, the following ones were deliberate...

anotherdayanothersquabble · 04/07/2017 18:10

Go back to them... say you have taken advice .. . as your position in HR, you do not feel it is right and HMRC / ACAS advised you (do speak to them too as I am sure they will say the same) that an emergency payment can be made as long as it goes through payroll next month as an adjustment and is taxed appropriately.

Moanyoldcow · 04/07/2017 18:47

This is a LIE.

They can estimate a net payment and deduct of from next month.

This is done all the time. I run a Payroll die around 100 people.

If this happened where I work you'd have had an apology and a same day payment.

It's outrageous.

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