Payment of overtime

loulou0652

Hi guys,

I just wondered if anyone knew what the law was in this situation.......... I have worked loads of overtime to go on holiday. The holiday is paid for and the overtime is my spending money.
My employer hasn't paid my overtime in error and is now refusing to pay it until next month. Can they do this?
Also if the overtime isn't paid then I can't go away and therefore lose all of the money for my flights and accomodation.

SarEl

I am sorry but all you can do is explain ans ask if it can be processed quicker or a loan given against what is owed. There is no law that says that overtime has to be paid immediately and even if there was, you haven't time to use it! I would have to observe that it seems somewhat pooor planning to have booked a holiday depending solely on having overtime - what would have happened if there had been no overtime. But in this case they are not responsible for your poor planning.

loulou0652

I'm paid in arrears so I knew that I had the money before I booked the holiday, I only booked it last week and this was after the hours were reset, showing that I had been paid. So it was a real last minute thing!! The mistake that is showing on my payslip is that I have been paid £91 instead of 91 hours so they have received the information that they needed to pay me but it seems that it has been processed incorrectly on their part.
Unfortunately as I am just a number to them they are unwilling to bend even slightly even though it is their mistake.
It's just a shame that there are no laws to protect people from this sort of thing.

getmore4less

I think you need to review your saving/spending if this results in not being able to take this holiday.

How much do you need to spend while away anyway.

No emergency fund you can dip into

No Credit cards you can fund spends from.

What about the normal spending for the week won't that cover the essentials while away.

loulou0652

My spending habits really aren't the issue here, after a family death I felt that I needed this unplanned break.

The question that I needed answering was with regards to the legality of witholding my overtime payment.

I just wondered if anyone on here had any experience of dealing with this sort of issue. I will call ACAS when they re-open on Tuesday, I was just after some advice in the meantime before I am able to contact ACAS.

mountainofdebt

tbh whilst I can appreciate you're a little miffed at the non payment of the overtime surely you can see that it is just an error pure and simple and that getting on your high horse and threatening them with all sorts is going to do nothing but put their backs up, even if they are in the wrong?

They haven't withheld it - there was an error, made by a human.

Personally I would go to my manager and ask politely (not demand!) if there was no way an interim payment could be made of a few hundred pounds - tell him the reason ....tug at the old heart strings!

To get ACAS involved, personally, is nothing more than a sledgehammer to crack a nut

Jarndyce

mountainofdebt wrote: »

tbh whilst I can appreciate you're a little miffed at the non payment of the overtime surely you can see that it is just an error pure and simple and that getting on your high horse and threatening them with all sorts is going to do nothing but put their backs up, even if they are in the wrong?

They haven't withheld it - there was an error, made by a human.

Personally I would go to my manager and ask politely (not demand!) if there was no way an interim payment could be made of a few hundred pounds - tell him the reason ....tug at the old heart strings!

To get ACAS involved, personally, is nothing more than a sledgehammer to crack a nut

A foam rubber mallet to crack a nut, more like.

SarEl

loulou0652 wrote: »

It's just a shame that there are no laws to protect people from this sort of thing.

It's a mistake! How can you have laws to protect people from mistakes. They are not refusing to pay you, and it was not their decision to tell you to book a holiday without any funds already available to cover the costs of it. Now there is no law, whatever ACAS tell you (because they often get it wrong) that says that they have to pay you now. So you can make this hard for yourself by jumping up and down and screaming about it, in which case your employer is quite certainly not likley to bend in your direction. Or you can go in on Tuesday and explain the problems and the circumstances and ask them if there is anything they can do, including an advance, to help you out of this situation. Because if the other option is to lose the money that you have already paid out on flights and somewhere to stay, it seems that letting your annoyance get in the way is going to cost you dearly.

kingfisherblue

I agree, it is a mistake on your employer's part. You haven't been refused payment. Mistakes happen - you made one by assuming that the money would be there, ready for you to spend.

To arrange payment of overtime would probably mean a whole payroll to be done again - this can be costly. I volunteer for a charity and we pay over £100 a month for payroll services. most companies won't want to pay for an additional payroll because of an error. Instead, ask if an advance is possible, and do so without being angry. It won't help your cause if you are. Also, look at other possibilities for money, as other posters have advised. Can you borrow from family, just until next month's payday?

yvonne13_2

Why don't you ask them if they can do a chaps?

skintandscared_2

I'm quite surprised at most of the answers here and if I was the OP I would also be annoyed that I hadn't been paid what I'd earned! It has happened to me too, once before, and HR couldn't have been more apologetic and arranged a payment to my bank account within a day. Is there someone sympathetic in HR you could speak to and explain that the overtime is your holiday spending money and without it you can't go away?

The only other options might be a temporary overdraft from your bank, which would be cleared when you are paid the overtime payment next month?

I hope you get your holiday!