Till shortages

no-oneknowsme

I know this question has been asked before but i just cant seem to find the threads and was hoping someone could refresh my memory.

My DD works part time and although she has worked for 4 months now has yet to receive a employee handbook or statement of terms and conditions for the position.

When she started she was told that any till shortages will be deducted from her wages . This i suppose is fair enough , cant complain if she makes a mistake and has to pay it back.

The way in which it is being done just doesnt seem right to me though.

She collected her pay packet last night and came outside and opened the envelope and looked at her pay slip . It said £88.22 on the payslip but there was only £78.22 cash in the envelope.

She went back into the shop and told the manager that her wages were wrong to which he replied "no , your till was down a tenner so it was taken from your wages" .DD then asked him when her till was short as they are cashed up at the end of the night before the employee goes home and the employee is informed straight away if there are any shortages. DD was never advised of any shortgaes.

The manager went on to tell her that he didnt actually know when her till was short as another manager had just told him that it was and told hime to make the deduction from her wages.

DD told him that it wasnt fair him just taking the money without telling her first to which he replied "I did tell you , theres a wee bit of paper inside your envelope telling you i made a deduction".

DD took everything out of the envelope and found a tiny scrap of paper maybe 1 inch in size (no exageration) which said "***** ****(DD's name) till short £10. There was no other info on the piece of paper , just her name and the words till short £10!

DD said to the Manager "but other people go into my till to get change " to which the manager replied "yes but its still your till"!!

Now , to me this just doesnt seem fair . Other people do go into DD's till to get change but seeing as how we dont know the date of when the shortage occured is going to be hard to ask the managers to check up on this ?

Also , incase it helps , the other employees are able to get into other peoples tills because the manager has a code which he can type in to open any till in the shop and the manager gave this code to all of the employees and told them to use it to gain entry to other tills if they need change !

Sorry to have posted such a long post but im hoping to get advice. DD has only worked their 4 months and i know that under 12 months service they can get rid of her if they feel she is a "trouble maker" so i want to make sure DD handles this in the right way.

getmore4less

Whats the wage?

the reason they may not be taking it off on the pay slip is that it may take the wage below NMW which is illegal.

no-oneknowsme

getmore4less wrote: »

Whats the wage?

the reason they may not be taking it off on the pay slip is that it may take the wage below NMW which is illegal.

No , its def not below NMW , infact as DD is 17 she should only be getting is it £3.85 ? She is however being paid £4.94 per hour which i have to say is good for a 17 year old !

Evilm

Firstly she should request immediately the contract terms and handbook (and if she doesn't get it appeal to HR/head office about the fact that her manager won't give them to her). If she has not signed something saying they can deduct shortages from their wages I believe it to be incorrect to do so. Some shops do make you sign such things.

If she has not signed anything to say that she accepts this will be done she should request details of their appeals procedure to disclipinary matters and appeal. Especially since other people can access the till and everyone knows it they should be providing proof that they know (from CCTV or something) that they knew she was responsible for the shortage.

no-oneknowsme

Thanks for that.

She is going to work again tomorrow so i have told her that she is to speak to the other manager (the one who left the message with the second manager abouting the till shortage) and she is to firstly ask him why she was not told as soon as the shortage was discovered that her till was short .

The last day DD worked (before yesterdays shift) was new years eve so i can only assume that this is when the shortage occured. The till however was counted and checked before she left the shop on that day and no till shortage was mentioned to her at that point . For this reason she assumed that her till was ok.

I have also told her to ask the manager for a copy of the staff handbook and to ask when she can expect to take possesion of her written contract and main terms and conditions of employment.

Although i know she is entitled to all of the above , im wary of the fact that the company may use all of this as an excuse to get rid of her:eek:

jazzyman01

Unfortunately with only 4 months service there is little protection under the law. However, I think she should challenge it or it could happen again.

Is this part of a large chain? If the till is open to any member of staff accessing it then this could be happening to others too. Has anyone else had money deducted?

If she does not get a satisfactory response from the manager, having explained anyone can access any till because the over ride code is know to all, she could raise a grievance. She will need to understand the procedure in the Company which may result in the first level going to the manager in her store. The issue she will have is if the code is not to be given to staff, her line manager may find him/herself in trouble so may want to deal with it in house quickly.

There is a risk they will use it as an excuse to get rid of her. However, if she has put in a formal grievance and they terminate this will help her in making a complaint of unfair dismissal to head office but not, I am afraid, in employment tribunal.

no-oneknowsme

jazzyman01 wrote: »

Unfortunately with only 4 months service there is little protection under the law. However, I think she should challenge it or it could happen again.

Is this part of a large chain? If the till is open to any member of staff accessing it then this could be happening to others too. Has anyone else had money deducted?

If she does not get a satisfactory response from the manager, having explained anyone can access any till because the over ride code is know to all, she could raise a grievance. She will need to understand the procedure in the Company which may result in the first level going to the manager in her store. The issue she will have is if the code is not to be given to staff, her line manager may find him/herself in trouble so may want to deal with it in house quickly.

There is a risk they will use it as an excuse to get rid of her. However, if she has put in a formal grievance and they terminate this will help her in making a complaint of unfair dismissal to head office but not, I am afraid, in employment tribunal.

Yes Jazzyman the company is a massive company with branches all over the world!

This is actually the second time they have took till shortages from her in the same manner.

Others have also told DD that they have had to pay back shortages.

DD is just turned 17 , not very "wordly wise" as yet (but im teaching her fast ) and being in her first job since leaving school i just thinks shes "scared" to raise matters with her manager.

I on the other hand would give mine hell if they treated me in this manner:p . I feel for her and want to help her out all i can but at the end of the day she has to learn from experiences such as this.

She plans to talk to her manager tomorrow in work so i shall post back to let everyone know how it goes.

Thanks to all who have taken the time to answer so far.

bristol_pilot

It is not worth staying in a job such as this. She could come back from a shift actually owing the Company money! Who is to say the manager isn't stealing from the till? Time to pick up her coat and look for another job.

DCFC79

Id get out now rather than later

Lokolo

DCFC79 wrote: »

Id get out now rather than later

^^ second that. Get a better job.

WhiteHorse

They are taking cash deductions? Any real paper trail for all this? (a tatty note in the wage packet is not a proper paper trail). Odd too that such a large company still pays in cash.

There's something really not quite right there.