Can I "make" my work pay me for the hours I've worked?

[LaurieScaryCake]

I've been on here before. They (a local college) didn't pay me from January til May - kept saying they didn't have the paperwork in order. Finally got paid for the hours I worked.

Then they sort of fired us all by saying we had to reapply for this academic year (even though we were in the middle of teaching 2 year courses). They reinterviewed us - I passed, they sent me a letter last month saying that when my hours were confirmed by my department I would get an employment contract.

No contract as yet. They have implemented a new system which means that we have to sign timesheets as well as registers, only so far they haven't matched.

Mine for September states I worked 18 hours when my registers state that I worked 49.

I was asked to sign the timesheet which I did (but I wrote on it that it was inaccurate, detailed the days and hours worked and wrote 49 hours in giant letters).

I would bet money that they will only pay me for the 18 hours as its a new system - but I don't want to wait til the end of November.

Are they under any obligation to pay me on time or is it ok to pay me a month later?

Normally they'd be under a contractual obligation to pay you whenever your contract says. But as you don't have a contract yet and there doesn't seem to be much of a well-established practice of paying on time, then that's more tricky.

In any case, even if your contract says you will be paid x amount of time after working hours or submitting a timesheet, in terms of what you can actually do about it, not a lot. There are options open to you, a breach of contract claim (although tricky in your case) and also a grievance followed by a tribunal claim for what's called an unauthorised deduction of wages. But if they pay it you in November it won't really have been worth pursuing either of those options.

So in answer to your question, it's not ok for them to pay you late, but realistically, if it's only a month late, not an awful lot you can do.

Thanks flowery, kind of you to answer.

If it's a month late it will be ok financially but I feel if I don't make a bit of a fuss now I will be waiting like I did for 5 months at the start of the year.

By all means make a fuss, absolutely, I totally agree, particularly given their history of payment problems. But realistically it may not achieve a lot unfortunately.

Sounds like a bit of a nightmare situation, hope it all settles down a bit for you now you've 'passed' your re-hiring interview and there's a system in place for hours worked.