Job Overpayed Me

Musee

hi i wonder if you guys could help me?

im doing this admin job which JobCentre found me which lasts for 6 months and is for 18-25yr olds to help them get experience. There are 13 of us and in our 4th month of this job and we were all payed the same amount of 7 pound an hour. I thought this was brilliant but I thought it was a bit weird as i diddnt think we were actually gonna get that much. One of us did actually ask the finance department of this job about this when we first started but nothing was said about it so we thought that was our proper wage then. So 4 months later we have just been told we should have been payed the national minimum wage and we have to pay the money they overpayed us back!!! its alot of money and all of us will struggle to actually pay it. This is like for most of us our very first job and now we are in "debt" because of the finance departments clumsiness. We all agree that we shouldnt pay this as it wasnt our fault as we did approach them about the wages when we first got payed.

anybody got any ideas? we would appreciate the help

David_Brent

Musee wrote: »

hi i wonder if you guys could help me?

im doing this admin job which JobCentre found me which lasts for 6 months and is for 18-25yr olds to help them get experience. There are 13 of us and in our 4th month of this job and we were all payed the same amount of 7 pound an hour. I thought this was brilliant but I thought it was a bit weird as i diddnt think we were actually gonna get that much. One of us did actually ask the finance department of this job about this when we first started but nothing was said about it so we thought that was our proper wage then. So 4 months later we have just been told we should have been payed the national minimum wage and we have to pay the money they overpayed us back!!! its alot of money and all of us will struggle to actually pay it. This is like for most of us our very first job and now we are in "debt" because of the finance departments clumsiness. We all agree that we shouldnt pay this as it wasnt our fault as we did approach them about the wages when we first got payed.

anybody got any ideas? we would appreciate the help

What does it say in your contract as to how much you will receive at an hourly rate? What did the job advert quote your rate at?

If they quote the minimum wage then yes you will have to pay the money back to them.

Musee

David_Brent wrote: »

What does it say in your contract as to how much you will receive at an hourly rate? What did the job advert quote your rate at?

If they quote the minimum wage then yes you will have to pay the money back to them.

darn i had a look at one of the adverts i was given by JobCentre and it says national minimum wage....

David_Brent

Are they making you pay it all back at once? If so you could say you can't afford to and setup for a certain amount to come out from your wage each week until it is cleared. How much are you owing?

BASFORDLAD

Check your contract.

SarEl

Musee wrote: »

hi i wonder if you guys could help me?

im doing this admin job which JobCentre found me which lasts for 6 months and is for 18-25yr olds to help them get experience. There are 13 of us and in our 4th month of this job and we were all payed the same amount of 7 pound an hour. I thought this was brilliant but I thought it was a bit weird as i diddnt think we were actually gonna get that much. One of us did actually ask the finance department of this job about this when we first started but nothing was said about it so we thought that was our proper wage then. So 4 months later we have just been told we should have been payed the national minimum wage and we have to pay the money they overpayed us back!!! its alot of money and all of us will struggle to actually pay it. This is like for most of us our very first job and now we are in "debt" because of the finance departments clumsiness. We all agree that we shouldnt pay this as it wasnt our fault as we did approach them about the wages when we first got payed.

anybody got any ideas? we would appreciate the help

I might be able to offer a glimmer of hope, but it is only a glimmer and if it turns into anything better then it will take effort and solidarity on your parts. Normally the advice that you have been given above would be correct - you do owe the money back, and if your employer wants they can deduct the overpayment from your wages.

But, and this is the legal point, there are certain circumstances in which an employer cannot enforce repayment in the courts, and you may well qualify. In the first instance, the employer must have made a mistake (which they have). To argue that you should not have to repay it, you have to show some more things. In the first place you must show that you went on to accept and spend that money, genuinely believing that it was yours. This takes more than just having not noticed the error - it is your reponsibility as an employee to query your wages if you think they are incorrect. But you did query it, and nothing was done - so you could argue that you had cause to believe that since they did nothing when you queried it and continued to pay you too much, you genunely believed that the money was yours. You must then not have the money to pay it back - and I assume that none of you have savings to pay it back? That means that if they deduct the money from your wages (which I am saying again, they can legally do) then you won't have enough money to live on as you have bills etc to pay.

The flaw in all of this is that if your employer takes the money out of your wages then you would have to take legal action to stop this - and even if you could do that, you might not win. The problem with this "glimmer" is that it depends on whether the court agrees with you, and although I think they might (assuming everything you have said is accurate) I cannot guarantee that.

If you want to try to stop this debt from being reclaimed you will all have to put in a collective grievance (a complaint signed by all of you), pretty much saying everything I have just told you. Explain when you queried the payments and who you spoke to and what happened in as much detail as possible. Explain that you believe it is unfair to reclaim the money now because you genuinely believed it was your money because you had queried it and nothing happened, and that you don't have the money to repay the amount, you have no savings and if it is deducted from your wages you will be left without the means to live. Keep copies of everything and make notes about any conversations you have with anyone about this.

The employer might (and it's a big might) decide either to let you off the debt, or let you off some of it. Anything is better than nothing! They also might not, in which case you either decide to be awkward and fight back over this - or you give up. I know it's a hard one because you are all quite young and you may not have the means or the will to fight it.

There is a lesson to be learned. It's not one that everyone learns until it is too late and much worse. And it's one that you can do now, albeit it's too late to help you right now. Join a union. If you had a union you could have gone to them and someone would have tried to help you with all this. Money spent on a union isn't wasted beer money - it's money well spent on helping you when you get into trouble at work. Read a few more posts here and you will find out just how much trouble you can get into at work! As young workers you will get reduced fees too, and most unions don't expect a fee if you are out of work. So if you get nothing else from this, it might be a lesson worth learning.