Looking for help, is employer breaking the law?

chigstoke · 16 July 2017 at 12:13PM

I am a new poster and honestly none of the other sections of the forum seemed appropriate so I'm trying the employment section (though it is do with money)

Basically, our pay system at work is very archaic. Pay is done through staff handing in paper timesheets, which are then checked and put onto a pay spreadsheet, rather than electronically which we have suggested numerous times to use instead.

Unfortunately due to the way the pay is done, mistakes are sometimes made. Maybe a wrong number pressed by accident. Usually our board of trustees would write a cheque for those with wrong pay.

However, now the board of trustees for the company I work for are saying they will no longer write cheques for anyone who has wrong pay, and instead want the money to be transferred from mine and a workmates own bank accounts. Meaning they want us to transfer our OWN WAGES to staff who don't get paid correctly by accident.

Personally, I'd have though that is against the law, they can't make me transfer any money. Does anyone know the legal stance on this? Surely they can't force me to give people my own money from my own wages?

Many thanks guys

jobbingmusician · 16 July 2017 at 12:18PM

I'm guessing this is a charity, right, from the reference to trustees?

I don't know whether it's legal or not. If illegal, charities exploit their workers the whole time so are acting illegally A LOT. What I do have up my sleeve is an argument as to why you should not do this.

Some years ago the charity for which I worked had a cashflow problem, so I lent them some money. This had to be recorded in the annual accounts, and we had quite a few questions about it over the following years. It occurs to me that if you transfer money from your bank account to someone who has been incorrectly paid, you are also making a loan to the charity. Your auditors (or the people who inspect your accounts, if you don't have a formal audit) are likely to have something to say about this!

If you are the senior employee, who has contact with the auditors, I suggest that you mention this suggestion to them and say that you don't think it's good accounting practice..... (There is a lack of transparency here, and a potential for abuse, which turns my stomach. I can't believe that trustees can be that stupid - except that I have worked with a fair few and know that they can!)

worried123 · 16 July 2017 at 12:39PM

Hi

I was just browsing and i doubt that i can be of any help to you but your situation sounds outrageous........i would be beyond furious if that happened to me and it most certainly cannot be right surely - both legally and morally.....good luck and hope you get it sorted out.

chigstoke · 16 July 2017 at 1:05PM

This is in the administration department, so me and someone else do the data inputting with pay on the spreadsheet.

Unfortunately we don't deal with the auditors, mainly it's my management and trustees. Yes it's a charity. There have been money issues in the past which only just about got resolved. I just don't see how they force me to transfer money out of my account. I can flat out refuse to do it.

What I don't get is, writing a cheque to make up the missing pay is still the same money out the charities accounts? I don't see the issue in them doing cheques.

The part that worries me is, I am 21, and can't afford to do stuff like that. With various bills and savings I have. For my next car, holiday, insurance etc... it's tough

worried123 · 16 July 2017 at 1:10PM

Oh bless - good luck - i hope somebody here can help you.

sangie595 · 16 July 2017 at 2:07PM

I'm really struggling to understand how they can possibly think that they can force you to pay other staff from your own personal bank account, because obviously they can't - and it would be scary accounting procedure that no auditor would condone. Are you sure you have understood what they have asked correctly?

chigstoke · 16 July 2017 at 2:13PM

Absolutely understood it correctly, sangie595

The trustees want me and another administrator, should there be any issues with pay, to transfer money from our own bank accounts to staff who need correct pay should they be underpaid by accident. They are now going to refuse to write out cheques. Without no thought process of what auditors would say.

NeilCr · 16 July 2017 at 2:31PM

Good grief!

I am totally with you, Sangie and everyone else

Are they proposing a way of reimbursing you?. Is it because they think it is the quickest way of getting the staff the right money?

comeandgo · 16 July 2017 at 2:40PM

Are there a lot of errors? They have possibly said that you have to sort it out as you made the mistake. Why are there mistakes? Can you not do some sort of checks on your calculations? I would assume there are overpayments too. Ask your auditors for advice on how to check you are not making mistakes.

chigstoke · 16 July 2017 at 3:05PM

Double reply here

They have mentioned nothing about reimbursing us for any transfers. Almost like a 'don't f*** this up' kind of thing

Second reply - We very rarely make mistakes because pay is a hot area. A lot of people don't hand their timesheets in on time and that causes us grief. We do the calculations, it's all done by a formula on Excel as well as manually ourselves which has been checked over numerous times. We then double check it all and will run a spot check on random timesheets to see if they match up against the spreadsheet. A lot of the mistakes were made prior to me and my colleague introducing our system of doing the spreadsheet.

Since we took over the management of the spreadsheet, it's much better. But they're adamant now it must come out of our pockets should there be mistakes, and I personally don't think it's fair, and it's not something I can afford to do if there ever are mistakes.

ohreally · 16 July 2017 at 3:18PM

Put it to them that they make available their own bank accounts to cover their organisational errors.

Looking for help, is employer breaking the law?

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free