Payday-aibu

[morethanspice]

I work in the care sector and payday falls on a weekend day this month. I’m new to this company but a colleague told me our pay would be in on Friday. It wasn’t and hasn’t appeared over the weekend. I’m assuming Monday now but that will mess up my direct debits as they come out of a different account. My manager is on holiday and doesn’t want to be contacted unless it’s an emergency which obviously it isn’t but it’s caused some anxiety for me. Is it unreasonable to want paid on or before the payday or is it reasonable to have to wait in these circumstances?

If you've gone into an unauthorised overdraft because of the late payment then ask your employer to reimburse any overdraft fees.

If it’s possible to move your direct debits/standing orders, I always try to set mine up to go out a few days after payday, so I’m not panicking if this sort of thing happens. But I would definitely talk to them and clarify what to expect and point out that it’s not acceptable to be paid late.

So just to update, the payslip actually says paid on the 15th. Contract says payday is the 14th. So this was a deliberate decision to pay us late. I hadn’t noticed this as it’s in small print and also as I had wrongly assumed it would be on or before our contractual payday.

Glad you got paid OP. If you or any of your colleagues had bank charges due to this, make sure you ask for reimbursement from your employer.

But make it clear that, even if no-one has been charged, late payment is not acceptable.

It could have knock on effects for people's credit rating, universal credit entitlement or leave them unable to pay for essentials. It doesn't matter that it's only one day, your contract says you should be paid on or before the 14th, so that's what they must do.

The 14th was a sunday though and if your manager does payroll and was holiday maybe they just paid you on the monday instead so they could have their holiday undisturbed maybe?

But if it's in their contract that payday is the 14th, they should be paid by then. It is absolutely not acceptable to pay people late, especially low paid workers, and especially without telling them.

If that was the reason then the manager should have sorted pay before he went on leave, rather than swan off for a nice break while his workers fretted about paying their bills.

YANBU
its a contractual right to be paid by the due date. If this falls on a weekend, it should be early.
Get in touch with your manager.
You are entitled to be paid on time. No excuses.

No you rightly assumed it would be there by the due date as it should have been.
I suggest asking why it was late and asking for future pay dates.

Yes if payday falls on a weekend you should get it before the weekend. I would email your boss and ask for clarification. If for some reason there was a delay/ error the company should make you aware and apologise/ make arrangements to assist you.

The manager uses an accountantbut I have checked our contracts and payday is definitely the 14th.In future I will be looking more closely at my payslip. We already get paid two weeks plus in arrears so an extra day is annoying. In other similar jobs I’ve been paid weekly without fail.

This reminds me of a time I worked as an agency nurse in a nursing home. The carers (all of them) didn’t get paid at all one December. NH owner had jetted off to America for Christmas with their pay.
Nearly all the staff had young children and really needed that money.
The owner was a despicable little man.
My agency paid me. I spent most of my day off the next day phoning ACAS, citizens advice etc but nothing could be done.

They should have been paid 23rd December. I think they finally got paid 15th January.

That’s truly appalling