Frustrated with missing pay, not sure what to do?

[Panther40]

At the end of June I was underpaid by around £400.
It's a large company with several branches, I emailed my HR team who then passed on the matter.
They replied fairly quickly and advised that they had indeed made an error and would I like to have it as an advance.
I replied straightaway requesting an advance, that was over a fortnight ago and there is still no answer.

I've been chasing it up with my HR department who stated the payroll team are 'working on it. Other emails I've sent have been ignored or just passed around to different departments.

It has put me in financial difficulty, not that they give a damn. I'm worried I won't even get it end of this month, how long does it really take to make an advance payment? I feel like I have little power, I understand mistakes happen but they don't seem bothered.

I am certain that senior management would absolutely not forsake a quarter of their salary, it would be rectified immediately.
Just wondered if anyone else has had this and if it was resolved?

I’d be going into my line manager today and telling them I need the payment by the end of the day and I will not be palmed off again.

Get your line manager to take up the charge on your behalf - you've raised the issue, been clear about the resolution, it's now time to bring in bigger guns. It's not fair, you've done the work and they need to act now to resolve their error. I am so sorry, it must be so stressful - this is the kind of thing that means people have to cancel outside of work plans through no fault of their own. Imagine if you had been going on holiday and were left high and dry without the funds you had anticipated. Totally unacceptable - escalate and escalate! Good luck.

I'd be so angry about this, practically every penny of my wage is accounted for so if I got underpaid by £400 we would be in serious trouble. Tell them you hope they will be paying the fees for any missed or late payments that you incur thanks to their mistake.

Thank you, I've just got to go in and be firm, 'working on it' is a joke of an excuse.

Get your manager to email (marked "urgent action required") the head of HR and head of finance asking them to organise the payment by close of business today.
The email should enclose the audit trail / confirmation of the error from HR

Then give them 1 hour to reply/ begin the payment process and after that if there is no reply your manager phones each directly.

I'd be standing at someone's desk until they pressed the button to pay me.

Even if it’s not in your nature you need to go in right now and demand payment by 5pm today. You earned your money and should be paid, I’m sure if you didn’t turn up to work because you couldn’t be bothered and said you’re working on coming in at some point - they’d be livid!

Oh yes, they already threaten to dock 15 minutes of pay from you if you ever clock out even a minute early, but if you get out late which often happens you are never paid for it or offered TOIL.

ACAS can advise on this.

Takes my team less than 5 mins to calculate an advance, and we'd have it paid the same day.
Go stomp your feet!!

Definitely go via line manager but as a line manager in a large organisation I could contact HR and payroll as much as I like but I wouldn't be able to effect an immediate payment. It's been over a fortnight though so that is ridiculous (though I have a contractor not paid for 3 months and I can't get organisation to do anything about it). Ask if there is any emergency payment or hardship fund you could access

I've had similar as a manager - the delay was due to HR and Finance having a grudge against each other, nothing to do with the poor team member who had been waiting. This is what your line manager is for, ask them to escalate hard.

As well as escalating, raise a formal grievance (call it that in your letter). It's also potentially a breach of contract/unlawful deduction of wages (speak to ACAS to get more advice)

Is it overtime or some sort of shift allowance payment in addition to basic pay? Are they disputing what you are owed or just being incompetent in processing the payment?

If it's the latter, request an immediate BACS transfer for at least a rough net pay amount and they can sort the tax out next payday. In your grievance ask for interest on that missing sum for that period as well, and compensation if you've had any fees or fines as a result of not having the sum in your account (I've authorised these in the past so it can be done).

I work in HR and paying people properly and on time is a basic requirement. I've had rows with payroll staff in the past (they often sit in Finance and so HR have no direct control). Get someone, your boss, and HR person, on your side to to take it up on your behalf as well. The problem with payroll is they can be very rigid 'computer says no' thinkers and as they are not people facing rarely see the human side of it.

This nails it exactly. I’m of HR background and this pretty much sums the whole thing up.

If you raise a grievance, it will be the kick up the bum that the company need to sort the situation asap, as the last thing HR will want is a breach of contract case over something that can be dealt with quite quickly and painlessly.

Well that's an issue also then.

Companies have to be very careful that they're not breaching minimum wage regulations by doing that.

i.e. if you were on minimum wage but ended up carrying out even an extra hour of unpaid work, then officially they're paying you less than minimum wage.

In terms of the underpayment, there's advice here on raising a grievance - https://www.acas.org.uk/if-your-wages-are-not-paid/raising-an-issue-with-your-employer