Laws surrounding Witnessing your float/till being cashed up

Victoria85

PLEASE HELP.

I am having issues in my workplace regarding the cashing up procedure.

I work as a Sales Assistant.

When staff in my work use the till, we have our own float. We are not allowed to share tills.

When the manager/assistant manager take the floats for cashing up, they do it alone in the office.

Sometimes they claim the float doesn't balance and I owe it back. It is written in our contracts so I understand I cannot dispute this.
I have no problem if it is my error. I am very careful with my float and I do understand that humans can all make mistakes and on occassion I may give customers incorrect change.

However, when I request to witness my float being cashed up I am being told I can't.

I have asked friends and relatives about this. They have told me that I have a legal right to see my float being cashed up at the end of my shift.

I have stated this to my manager (with no proof, just going of what people have told me) and he is claiming this is not the case and I DO NOT under any circumstances have a legal right to do so.

He also mentions that there is not enough staff in the shop at the time of cashing up (1.5 hours before closing, then tomorrow's float goes on) for me to be able to see this. I have offered to stay behind at the end of the day but he insists it cannot be done. He doesn't explain why, he is very short with me and not clear enough.

I get extremely upset when there are claims made that my float is £10 short, even once been told it is £20 short and I have no proof of this. His response is "There is nothing untoward happening and there is a camera in the office."

He takes money out of the counter cash box and puts it in his pocket when walking up to the office. I can understand his reasoning for this (incase someone comes and snatches the float on his way) but often I am paranoid about it.

I am so frustrated. I dread the end of the day when he cashes up.

Can someone please link me to official websites where I can find this information? Or give contact telephone numbers to where I can get some help? I am at the point where I am not happy to serve customers on the till in fear of my manager claiming it was short.

Jarndyce

No, of course there is no legal right for you to witness the cashing up.

However if you are genuinely concerned that you are being unfairly accused of till shortages and/or that your manager's methods are too lax and prone to error, then you could raise these above his head. However, a massive note of caution before you do that, for obvious reasons.

Otherwise, is there any way you can make a spot check of the till yourself to ensure it is roughly right before it is cashed up properly? Any other way of gathering evidence that it is the manager making the error/stealing the money and not you? Obviously anything you do along these lines needs to be completely open and above board, but any further checks you could do (on the basis that "you are wanting to be doubly sure that your till is correct") that will make it clear to the manager that you are not to be messed with?

dark_lady

Jarndyce wrote: »

No, of course there is no legal right for you to witness the cashing up.

However if you are genuinely concerned that you are being unfairly accused of till shortages and/or that your manager's methods are too lax and prone to error, then you could raise these above his head. However, a massive note of caution before you do that, for obvious reasons.

Otherwise, is there any way you can make a spot check of the till yourself to ensure it is roughly right before it is cashed up properly? Any other way of gathering evidence that it is the manager making the error/stealing the money and not you? Obviously anything you do along these lines needs to be completely open and above board, but any further checks you could do (on the basis that "you are wanting to be doubly sure that your till is correct") that will make it clear to the manager that you are not to be messed with?

The OP mentioned that the cashing up is done 1.5 hours before closing. Do you really think there is time for all that pi55ing about when there are customers in the store?

Jarndyce

dark_lady wrote: »

The OP mentioned that the cashing up is done 1.5 hours before closing. Do you really think there is time for all that pi55ing about when there are customers in the store?

I have no idea, and neither do you. I was just floating possible ideas that the OP could adapt/apply to her particular environment. I don't know (and neither do you) if she is in a fast moving food shop where there are customers every few seconds, say, or a slower more gentile environment serving one customer every few minutes which would allow her to spend more time making more checks.

Anyway, thanks for your helpful contribution.:T

MarioKart

Do you have an area manager that you can talk to about this? They are there not just for your manager to talk to, but also for you to do so too. Or maybe a HR counsellor?

It's strange in retail to have tills cashed off before the shop is closed (unless it's a midday cash off)

hannahsmummy1

In answer to your question if you have a legal right to witness your till being cashed up- I'm not sure... However I worked in the cash office of a large bingo hall- making up floats and cashing them in etc. When we made up the floats- we had to write on there what was in them-this had to be checked before leaving the room by the person taking the float- it was then checked again at the till when putting it in the till. At the end of the shift money would be counted and written on the cash slip and taken to cash office where it would be cashed in by the cashier- in front of the person cashing in the till and of course all monitered on CCTV- so there was no chance you could say money had gone missing if it hadnt- or vice versa when there was a mistake made (sometimes a bag being counted twice or not at all) it could be corrected by looking at the CCTV.

I know its not practical to do this in every environment- i think you mentioned your boss said not enough staff etc, but thats how we did it- and there was never any issues.

Flyboy152

Jarndyce wrote: »

No, of course there is no legal right for you to witness the cashing up.

However if you are genuinely concerned that you are being unfairly accused of till shortages and/or that your manager's methods are too lax and prone to error, then you could raise these above his head. However, a massive note of caution before you do that, for obvious reasons.

Otherwise, is there any way you can make a spot check of the till yourself to ensure it is roughly right before it is cashed up properly? Any other way of gathering evidence that it is the manager making the error/stealing the money and not you? Obviously anything you do along these lines needs to be completely open and above board, but any further checks you could do (on the basis that "you are wanting to be doubly sure that your till is correct") that will make it clear to the manager that you are not to be messed with?

It would be unclear as to the the employee's rights to do this, but the employer cannot only make deductions from salaries after a thorough investigation and with proof of any discrepancies.

There are also rules to follow, even if it is agreed in a contract. They are

• The employer must notify you in writing of the total amount owed, along with the details of the investigations carried out, before taking any money.
• They must wait until your regular day of being paid to demand repayment.
• Any deductions cannot exceed 10% of your gross wages for that period, but they can make similar deductions from future wages, until the shortfall is accounted for.
• They must take action within twelve months of discovering the shortfall.

Jarndyce

Flyboy152 wrote: »

It would be unclear as to the the employee's rights to do this, but the employer cannot only make deductions from salaries after a thorough investigation and with proof of any discrepancies.

There are also rules to follow, even if it is agreed in a contract. They are

• The employer must notify you in writing of the total amount owed, along with the details of the investigations carried out, before taking any money.
• They must wait until your regular day of being paid to demand repayment.
• Any deductions cannot exceed 10% of your gross wages for that period, but they can make similar deductions from future wages, until the shortfall is accounted for.
• They must take action within twelve months of discovering the shortfall.

What would be unclear? It is quite clear. The employee has no legal right to witness cash being counted. That was the question asked by the OP.

Hammyman

dark_lady wrote: »

The OP mentioned that the cashing up is done 1.5 hours before closing. Do you really think there is time for all that pi55ing about when there are customers in the store?

I'm sorry but if I had someone doing something that directly results in money being taken out of my wages because of their incompetency, I am damned sure I'd want to watch them do it.

trishandbubs

It all sounds a bit dodgy to me, if you were giving the incorrect change to customers it wouldnt be £10 or £20 and if money was going missing I would expect the manager to be a bit more wary and try to find out how its going missing. I would say it sounds like the manager is pocketing the money themselves especially if they are so against having it checked.

Where I work all cash needs to be double counted, manager counts it at cash out then its double checked against once the store is closed. If i were you I would be speaking to someone higher up than them. Another thing I would be doing is double checking everything you do, recount the change your giving into the customers hand, yes this will slow you down a wee bit but at least then you can hand on heart say you havent made a mistake so if they then turn around and say money is missing you know its not you.

If there is no one higher up in the company than your manager (he might be the owner as well) then I would get some advice from citizens advice as technically wouldnt it be theft for him taking money out of your wage whilst not having the money missing in the first place

DCFC79

Sounds odd you cant witness it being cashed up, only time where we had our own cash box thingys we witnessed it being cashed up and i even did it myself but i wasnt fast enough at it.