Overpayment & Disciplinary

DVardysShadow

jobbingmusician wrote: »

absolute rubbish. A disciplinary is supposed to be a tool to help employees perform to the standard required.

There are very few employers of that type left now.

DVardysShadow

Because of the history of this, it will be complex to unravel.

I believe that the time of your move of department should set an end to any possible allegation of accepting an overpayment because of the letter setting out your salary at that time. While there may have been an oversight prior to that time on the part of the employer, at that particular time they had good and fair opportunity to review what they were paying you. So on the basis of custom and practice, I believe that they are wrong to reduce your overall salary, and I believe that paying you a reduced salary would amount to unlawful deduction of wages.

Note that in saying that they should not reduce your salary, I am not saying anything about recovery of any potential overpayment prior to the date of the move of department. If there are deductions to be made, your gross salary should be untouched and specific deduction should be itemised on the pay slip and made according to a pre notified and reasonable schedule.

In terms of how you play this, if you have not already had this information, you should ask in writing for them to provide you with a schedule of the alleged losses and to postpone the disciplinary for at least a week after they have provide this to allow you to review.

Given that this looks to be going to a fairly ugly place, you need to keep a copy of this letter, but otherwise go with the flow as far as the process is concerned - although if the information is not provided and you don't have time to review it, you should certainly make the point at any hearing.

If a schedule of losses is provided, you should go through it with a fine toothed comb and consider 3 questions for each period of allegation

• whether you were strictly entitled to have any or all of the alleged excess at that time
• what your defence is if on balance you now feel you may not have been entitled
• the extent to which the employer was responsible for payments which you now feel you were not entitled to

As you can see, it will be difficult to defend yourself without a schedule of alleged losses. If one is not provided, it seems to me that you have to reject the allegations in their entirety because they are not made with specificity.

DVardysShadow

mynameistallulah wrote: »

If you receive money that you are not entitled to you have a duty to advise of the overpayment. It comes under the implied duty of mutual trust and confidence. If the OP was aware of the overpayment, he has in effect lied by omission for the past five years.

If there is an implied duty of mutual trust and confidence [and I believe there is], then the fact that is mutual means that the employer is bound by that duty too. And the employer is in breach for letting this situation go on for so long and [it seems to me], in breach again for applying a gross salary cut , having confirmed a salary for a role in a new department.