unpaid salary

keatsy21

Hi,

I have just registered on here despite viewing for a long time as I have a major problem. I have come home from work today and have a letter to say that my work sharesave scheme (£100 per month) has not been deducted this month as I have insufficient funds in my salary.

I am due to be paid on Monday so I am reading in to this that I am not being paid for some reason, very worrying considering I have bills to pay! I work for a bank and I have debts (overdraft and loan) which I have defaulted on but I would have thought the only thing they could do is either arrest my wages at the bank and not just take it themselves without even informing me.

Please if anybody knows can you help me? I am really scared and don't think this weekend holds much sleep!

SarEl

I assume that you bank at the same bank you have defaulted on the debts to? Because you are quite correct in that a legal order is required to stop your wages (unless you have signed something to permit this) - but possession is 9/10ths of law of ownership, and if you have defaulted to the bank you work for (or a subsiduary company) then I doubt they care very much because your only choice is to sue them for the return of the money. But frankly, it's impossible to say what has happened or what you might do about it - because we don't have any explanation for why your wages won't cover the sharesave scheme. So until you ask the employer the question, all we could do is speculate uselessly.

keatsy21

Hi sarEl, thanks for your reply. I don't bank with them, I know about being able to take money out of accounts to cover other debts if within the same organisation. My salary has not gone in to my account, not due to until monday but I just want to know for Monday if they can legally do this? I would think they needed to pay me first and then take it from my account (with another bank and in no way connected). Any help on this would be much appreciated.

SarEl

I can't tell you whether they can legally do this - I don't know why they have done this, and neither do you. You are not due to be paid until Monday, so at this stage it isn't even clear that it has been stopped, neer mind why. Sorry, but without an explanation it is impossible to say.

DVardysShadow

keatsy21 wrote: »

Hi,

I have just registered on here despite viewing for a long time as I have a major problem. I have come home from work today and have a letter to say that my work sharesave scheme (£100 per month) has not been deducted this month as I have insufficient funds in my salary.

I am due to be paid on Monday so I am reading in to this that I am not being paid for some reason, very worrying considering I have bills to pay! I work for a bank and I have debts (overdraft and loan) which I have defaulted on but I would have thought the only thing they could do is either arrest my wages at the bank and not just take it themselves without even informing me.

Please if anybody knows can you help me? I am really scared and don't think this weekend holds much sleep!

?????

Why are you doing a sharesave scheme when you are defaulting on debts? The sharesave returns are probably not going to outweigh the interest you could be avoiding by putting the money to your debts.

keatsy21

Hi DVardysShadow,

The debts are defaulted and therefore no interest to be paid. Also the sharesave that I have been contributing to was at a price which is over 20x less than the highest price of the companies shares and that was only 3 years ago so it is a longterm investment. I have decided this is worth while although I know others opinions will differ. My question is more about whether or not they can legally not pay my salary to me rather than if I should be saving or not.

DVardysShadow

OK, it is rational, what you are doing. Although with the kind of scrape you are in now, it must be a bit stressful. You need to get an explanation as to why on Monday. Once you have that, the legality can be assessed.

keatsy21

A bit stressful is certainly one way to describe it! lol. I have decided there is no point in worrying about until I find out for sure on Monday. A part of me thinks that if they have taken it then in some ways I deserve it but would still have the problem of bills to pay this month! The more I think about it I am convincing myself that if they were to be taking my wages they would at least need to inform me before doing so. I will wait and see what happens and post back, hopefully the letter was sent in error.

LillythePink

So are you saying that you work for x bank but your loans/overdraft are at another bank?

Are they joined at all?

If they are not joined and are at two different places, then I don't see why your employer would take your salary because of this as it's nothing to do with them.

Obviously, there is a side matter of you defaulting which could impact on your job but surely that's a different matter

keatsy21

Lillythe Pink - I work for the same bank that I owe the money to but my current account is with another bank. I would have thought though that if they were to decide to not pay my salary then they would need to either inform me or have a court order which i have not been informed of.

Defaulting should not affect my employment, knowhere in my contract does it mention my own financial affairs but I am pretty sure it would be frowned upon if my management were to know!

SarEl

keatsy21 wrote: »

Lillythe Pink - I work for the same bank that I owe the money to but my current account is with another bank. I would have thought though that if they were to decide to not pay my salary then they would need to either inform me or have a court order which i have not been informed of.

Defaulting should not affect my employment, knowhere in my contract does it mention my own financial affairs but I am pretty sure it would be frowned upon if my management were to know!

I did ask this earlier. They have possession of your money before it goes to your current account at another bank and you owe them money and have defaulted. Sorry, but you are wide open here - I will bet you that somewhere in the terms and conditions of your employment it says that if you owe them money they can take your wages. Almost every bank that I have ever come across has such a clause, somewhere. And I would check all the small print - including the stuff at head office or on the intranet that you probably never bothered to read - because the clause allowing them to seize your money is probably next to the one about the appropriate finanical conduct of your monetary affairs being relevant to your continued employment. Banks have expectations of their staff conducting their financial affiars properly, and they take a dim view of employing people who default on debts - especially the ones that are owed to them.

You seriously need to get your house in order. As someone has already observed, buying a significant amount of share options every month when you cannot pay your debts is lunacy. If you are very lucky they have only seized this amount on the basis that they also think this. But if you have the time and opportunity before this gets any further out of hand, you must get advice on your debts and work out a way of managing them - or you could loose your job.