Paid someone else's wages...

Lavace

Hi all,
I'm in desperate need of some advice, as I'm unsure how far this can actually go.

I used to work part-time at my student's union as a barman. Fortunately, I found better work elsewhere and left. It has been around 3 months since I had anything to do with the SU.

Earlier today, I recieved a voicemail telling me I was paid another staff member's wages and to arrange a time to discuss it out. I went straight to see the manager, and unfortunately because the finance manager wasn't in, he was only able to provide me with a copy of all shifts that were paid to me.

It seems that I could owe somewhere up to £400, which is a lot of money. I have no problem with giving it back, it was never rightfully mine, by law I must give it back.

The problem is that their entire system, records, and finance officers are completely unreliable!. Allow me to give you a quick low-down on just how bad their system is:
1) Roughly 9 months ago, approximately £10,000 worth of saleable stock went 'missing'.
2) 4 months ago, they had completely mucked up everyone's shift payments. Some weren't paid, some weren't even on the system, a complete muck up.
3) Only a week ago, another £1000 of saleable stock had gone 'missing'.
4) They have possibly paid me someone else's shifts, because we have the same last name (no-one decided to look at the first name).

Upon looking at the table of shifts paid to me, going over the first week, I have three unpaid shifts (one isn't even on the system...), naturally I will be getting this deducted from the amount owed. The main problem is that I have two months of payments that I cannot cross check with my own records (as I stopped recording what shifts I worked, as the only thing on my mind was leaving the employment, they forced me to remain another month with them as they were heavily understaffed and I decided to honour my 1 month resignation notice).

How am I to trust their records, their officers, their managers after all these muck ups? Once they return a figure of around £300 to be paid back, I can't exactly say "No, you're far too unreliable.".

I'm feeling incredibly anxious about this, I'm unsure of what I can do about this. Can anyone bestow me with any knowledge on this? My rights? What I can fight for?

hcb42

did you clock in and out???

If you didnt, then have a good think about what dates you did work....

are the stocks liquor deficits during stock take, if so this in itself can mean a different unrelated problem.

Ultimately if you have been overpaid, they will need to prove it now..

McKneff

What has happened before is completely irrelevant.

If you agree that you have been overpaid, that is the whole point, either pay it back in full or arrange a
payment plan.

DVardysShadow

I think you could rightly argue that because they are wrong by 3 shifts in the first week, their records are so totally unreliable that the margin of error on their calculations exceeds the amount they are claiming.

To be fair to them you need to go through everything you have and list the discrepancies. And then I think you should ask them for access to all records [eg rotas for planned attendance, booking on sheets, whatever you know to be part of the system]. And check everything against the list of shifts they have given you and against your own records. Every time anything is missing from their records, eg a booking on sheet or a rota, note it down and make a total of what you think you would have earned if you had worked the period in question.

Given the degree of disarray in this outfit, I reckon you will quickly establish that the uncertainty exceeds the amount in dispute. That being the case, although they might take you to court, I think that they would fail to prove their case. So you could offer £100 'without prejudice' in 'full and final settlement' which in the circumstances might be a very generous offer.

A tip on this. Although there is considerable disarray in the management of this bar, you should not major your argument on points 1 and 3. Their stock keeping and evaporation management is separate from their payroll. And if you do go into correspondence which then goes to court, references to those issues will reflect badly on staff.

Enterprise_1701C

Did you not get a shift rota? Did anyone keep records of the rota - did you have any friends there that would have kept a record of shifts that everyone worked just for the sake of it?

jonnyd281

Lavace wrote: »

Hi all,
the only thing on my mind was leaving the employment, they forced me to remain another month with them as they were heavily understaffed and I decided to honour my 1 month resignation notice).

Just a point to note, if 1 month was your contracted notice period and you had not honoured it, your employer could have taken action to recover legitimate expenses from you.

There are threads on here about people being taken to the small claims court over just such issues.

scoobs078

If it was me i would ask them to send out a list of shifts so that i could cross check with my own records (even if i didnt have them) - then check the shift times against my phone log (presuming your not allowed to take or make calls in work) then check against any receipts i had that i wasnt shopping at those times, train tickets --- anything with a date/time stamp etc ..... if you can find one annomily it will worry them if they are that unorganised and you may get SOMETHING off what you owe at least :-)

DVardysShadow

scoobs078 wrote: »

If it was me i would ask them to send out a list of shifts so that i could cross check with my own records (even if i didnt have them) - then check the shift times against my phone log (presuming your not allowed to take or make calls in work) then check against any receipts i had that i wasnt shopping at those times, train tickets --- anything with a date/time stamp etc ..... if you can find one annomily it will worry them if they are that unorganised and you may get SOMETHING off what you owe at least :-)

Err. Surely some mistake? This would only find more shifts which employer had paid for but OP would now have to pay back

scoobs078

..... oh how i blushed ---- completely a*sed backwards logic from me ... I'll go find the delete button and shut up LOL

vax2002

Ask them to supply a copy of all paper work that they have used to calculate you were over paid.
Ignore them until they do

Notmyrealname

Being overpaid and not being paid for shifts are two different matters. Also the administration issue and the stock going missing is completely and utterly irrelevant.