Employer only paid me £400 for the month - what do I do?!?

timmay2606

Hope you can help/advise/cajole peeps...

Yesterday I emailed my employer and said that I can longer work for them for personal reasons. A bit of a rubbish way to quit your job, but I hated it there and felt no need to go into details.

I had phoned my bank just before sending the email to check what credits were due to go in, which included my pay for the month of around £1025.

When I checked my bank statement online just now I found that my employer had withdrawn the BACS and instead paid me just £425.

They've deducted £600!!!

Now I understand that they may have altered the pay to reflect my two days of absence, but I didn't expect them to deduct that much! I had only been with them for two months, and overheard a conversation between some other employees talking about if you leave within three months they recoup their training costs. I was confident that this wouldn't be the case for me however, as I had never signed a contract other than my initial letter of employment (which didn't have a deductions clause) and assumed that they could not make illegal deductions.

What do I do now to reclaim my money?

Please Help!!

Timbo

Advocatus

Assuming that the money is properly owed to you, you may have a claim for unlawful deduction from wages.

Sections 13 to 27 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996) set out the provisions that protect workers from unauthorised deductions being made from their wages.

The basic position under section 13 of ERA 1996 is that it is unlawful to make a deduction from a worker's wages unless:

• The deduction is required or authorised by statute or a provision in the worker's contract; or
• The worker has given their prior written consent to the deduction.

There are a number of express exceptions to the basic position outlined above. The specific exceptions are set out in section 14 of ERA 1996.

Hope this helps.

timmay2606

Thanks for the tips,

Do I need to have signed a contract?

Timbo

timmay2606

I have dug out every bit of paperwork handed to me since starting with the company (I have hoarding tendencies).

Although there was no contract, I found a page of information with web links to health and safety, company policies and other company handbooks. However this web link is not working, so I obviously can't see the details to see if there is 'deductions if you leave' clause.

Either way I'm pretty sure that I have a case for at least demanding the balance of my salary. However obviously, I can't afford a solicitor (not on £400 per month!). How do I go about this?

Any help would always be appreciated!

Timbo

SarEl

You would have to make either a claim to a tribunal or to the county court. But first you will have to write to them asking for a statement of what is owed and what deductions have been made and why; and then if they have made unlawful deductions, you will need to write again and say this, giving them a reasonable time to pay (usually 21 or 28 days) or you will take legal action without further notice. You cannot simply go off to court without trying to resolve the matter.

But be aware that you are in breach of contract and the employer is perfectly within their rights to countersue you for any quantifiable losses incurred as a result of your failure to give notice. This doesn't happen very often - and when it does it is almost always as a result of the employee making a claim against the employer.

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PS - everyone including you is jumping the gun by assuming that any deduction, lawful or not, has been made. They have recalled your payment and reduced it. This may be simply in order to enable them to recalculate what they may or may not owe you and prevent you from taking the entire payment out of the bank. The fact is that you don't know why this has been done. But be clear - you are the one in breach of contract here and "being clever" and quitting on the spot (by e-mail) on the day your wages are paid in doesn't work - as you now know.

Uncertain

Have you checked carefully whether the bank has acted correctly in all this?

It is worth finding out under what circumstances a BACS payment can be recalled and / or amended.

It is possible the company has lied to the bank in order to recall the payment. The may have persuaded their bank that they made a mistake. This would be untrue as, at the time they made the payment, the amount was correct.

Obviously this has nothing to do with what the company does or doesn't owe you and any claims you may have on each other. The previous advice is good in that respect.

However, from a practical point of view if the bank has erred they will have to make good the £600 whether they can get it from the company or not.

Advocatus

I wouldn't particularly worry about being counter-sued. In order for the claim to have an quantative merit, an employer will need to show loss which in most cases does not exist. If you think there is a tangible loss that they have suffered as a result of your breach, then there is the change you may have a counter-claim against you.

Once you have established (a) there is a deduction (b) the deduction is unlawful (c) the deduction is the company's act, then you have a claim for unlawful deductions.

The fact you have not signed your contract of employment does not matter. The fact that both you and the company accepted that it's terms applied and worked under them means it applies.

You will need to put in an ET1 claim form.

Judas

The fact you deliberately waited until you thought the money had cleared to breach your contract suggests to me that you knew fine these clauses existed and agreed to them therefore I dont have any sympathy and dont see why advice should be forthcoming to screw your employer out of money.

tuggy12

Why don't you just ring the wages dept. and ask them what it's all about?

paulwf

I don't think we've had the full picture yet.

OP what training have you had and was it worth £600? Was it for a qualification/skill that would be transferable? Did you really think that you could get all this training then leave without notice after 2 months?

To be clear I'm not making any judgement on who is right and wrong, just that we need the full story.

RobertoMoir

I think it would be interesting to see your final wage slip and P45.

What if the wages reclaimed were due to holiday taken out of the holiday year "allowance" but not yet accrued? I believe they're allowed to adjust wages for that reason, for example.