employer have deducted money from OH's wages

YellowCat

Hello MSE's

I've got a question about a problem OH is having with his employers.
OH's old regional manager arranged it so OH could have expenses money for his store. OH and regional manager both signed to say OH's store needed money for expenses and £150 was payed into OH's account with his wages, which OH withdrew from the bank and put in the safe at work. The idea was that OH would use the money to buy things (like decorating materials and office supplies for the store) then send off the receipts to the P.O.Box address he was given.
This was aprox a year ago. Now this month, OH's wage slip shows £150 has been deducted from his wages :mad:. He has been told (when he phoned them) they've reclaimed the £150 because they never received any receipts and when OH queried this he was told that he was supposed to have a senior regional sign any expenses anyway. OH was never given any guidlines for the expenses money and was just told verbally that he was to send all receipts, which he has done.
His current regional is saying there isn't anything he can do and basically means that OH has spent £150 of his own money on supplies for the store, etc.

I was just wondering if anyone could tell me where he stands in regard to getting this money back, if he can at all ? Its really caused a lot of problems for us because its left us £150 short on our bill and food money this month.

bendix

I don't understand the problem. All they are doing is being more professional about the way expenses are managed. I must say the original arrangement is highly irregular.

All your OH has to do is file a claim for the £150 he spent for company goods complete with receipts and he'll get it reimbursed.

It's the completely normal way for dealing with business expenses. Everyone else does it, so why shouldn't OH?

YellowCat

Maybe i didn't explain it very well- they gave him £150 for expenses which he spent and sent the receipts. Now they've deducted £150 from his wages because they're saying they haven't received the receipts.
He can't claim for the £150 he's spent because he already sent them the receipts as proof, as and when he was spending it, which they're claiming they haven't received.
Basically- they gave him £150 for expenses, he spent it on things his regional told him to buy for the store, he sent the receipts and now they've taken the £150 from his wages. This would be fine if he hadn't already spent it because he could just take it back from the safe but there is a grand total of 25p left.

Hope this is a bit clearer

Anihilator

I agree with the above.

Your husband was given £150 for expenses. A valid claim was never received hence it was reclaimed.

If he doesnt have proof he submitted the claim properly or copies of the receipts he won't really get anywere.

Its absolutly farcical a company would do this sort of thing anyway in the first place as company expenses should be paid directly by them or through a petty cash.

Anihilator

YellowCat wrote: »

Maybe i didn't explain it very well- they gave him £150 for expenses which he spent and sent the receipts. Now they've deducted £150 from his wages because they're saying they haven't received the receipts.
He can't claim for the £150 he's spent because he already sent them the receipts as proof, as and when he was spending it, which they're claiming they haven't received.
Basically- they gave him £150 for expenses, he spent it on things his regional told him to buy for the store, he sent the receipts and now they've taken the £150 from his wages. This would be fine if he hadn't already spent it because he could just take it back from the safe but there is a grand total of 25p left.

Hope this is a bit clearer

Well he was very naive then. He has no proof he spent the £150 on expenses and hence the company are perfectly entitled to reclaim them back.

YellowCat

I believe it was the companies way of setting up a 'petty cash' system in his store- they paid the money into his wages so that he could put it in the safe to use for expenses.
I find it a bit strange that a large company would set up a POBox for him to send the receipts to instead of them being sent dircectly to his head office. Yes, it was silly of him not to keep copies of the receipts, but they were sent on several different occassions so its odd that they company haven't received any of them.
Putting the receipts aside, they're now saying OH should have got all expenses countersigned by a senior regional, which wasn't a condition or rule when this was first set up.

Zazen999

Has he checked that the PO box was genuine, and gone through the motions of finding out who collects it etc?
Did he keep copies? [I'm guessing not].

YellowCat

He (stupidly) didn't keep copies. He hasn't checked the POBox address yet.
He's going to get a copy of the original document that he signed, which didn't have any T & C's and hopefully has the POBox address on it so he can prove thats where he was instructed to send receipts.

ERICS_MUM

Does the company have documented Expenses procedures ? If so then has your hubby abided by them ? If they don't, then how can they say what he has done is wrong ?

YellowCat

OH doesn't know of any other stores that have this in place. He wasn't given any list of procedures to read or sign when it was put in place, or since. The only information he was given was a verbal instruction to send his receipts, which he did but can't prove he did.
His regional at the time, the only person who can back him up, was made redundant and his current regional will only say there isn't anything he can do.

I've told OH to try to find out if any other stores had the same expenses system in place and find out if they've had the same problems. He's not back at his store until later this afternoon and, provided its not busy, he'll dig out all the paperwork that relates.

Zazen999

Did he buy the stuff on credit card or debit card at all?

Or did he pay cash for the items?

What items were they?