Wages Paid Incorrectly!

jonjb_2

Hi Guys n Gals,
I was hoping for a little bit of advice as to what I can do about this problem.

I was paid today and haven't been paid correctly. My Job requires a round trip of about 60 miles a day and I obviously incur a lot of traveling costs to get to and from work. Im not on a great wage (16,000 pa) and I have to budget my travel expenses out of this in advance. I have been paid around 700 short out of this months wage which is a massive chunk of my wages and with other bills having to be paid it leaves me with less than nothing.

I will be contacting my employer first thing but my question is this:

If they try and say that it wont be dealt with or sorted within the working day, were do I stand with the fact that I cant afford to travel to and from work due to their mistake that they (assuming it wont be dealt with straight away) made. If I am forced to have time off work is this my responsibility or are they held responsible and any days I lose, from not being able to afford the travel costs, paid?

Any advice would be appreciated. If any more details are needed for an informative answer please ask as Id like to know where I stand with this situation.

TIA

Jon

jonjb_2

PS If this is in the wrong forum or would be better suited to another I apologise and could it please be moved to the correct/more relevant one.
Thanks

fawd1

Hi there, this might be better off in a different forum (employment, jobseeking and training) However, I would think that if you haven't been paid correctly then your company have a duty of care to ensure that you are paid quickly enough to cover your costs of living (including travel) Depending on the size of the company this could mean that they physically give you 700 in cash, or they could do a faster payment into your account. All depends on your company and their policies though. I would certainly make sure that they cover the cost of their mistake though, not you!

MacsReturns

"However, I would think that if you haven't been paid correctly then your company have a duty of care to ensure that you are paid quickly enough to cover your costs of living (including travel)"

Frankly, that's not the company's problem, unless there is an explicit travel allowance in the wages. Employees are expected to turn up on time every day, how they do it is the employees' concern.

But that aside, I'd be :mad: with a pay-packet that's £700 short. Has there been any explanation, unusual deductions, or did they just miscalculate? Either way you need to speak to them ASAP, and ask for cash to avoid hardship, though I doubt very much the company will accept any liability for your budgeting. (My last employers certainly didn't - if the end of the month landed on the weekend, it was tough ****ies, I got paid on the Monday with no time to get the money to the bank before mortgage came out. I always ensured since then to float the bank balance with a full months' money - and yes, it was a struggle for a couple of months). Good luck with it though :beer:

Ypaymore

jonjb wrote: »

PS If this is in the wrong forum or would be better suited to another I apologise and could it please be moved to the correct/more relevant one.
Thanks

You would probaly best to repost it yourself if you need to here
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=141

fawd1

MacsReturns wrote: »

Frankly, that's not the company's problem, unless there is an explicit travel allowance in the wages. Employees are expected to turn up on time every day, how they do it is the employees' concern.

It is if the reason you haven't turned up to work is because they haven't paid you. I didn't say they had a duty of care to pay your travel, just to make sure that you got what you were due to allow you to continue performing as per usual.

Tazni

I would recommend talking with them and explaining everything you have said here, as to the fact that you will be unable to afford to travel to work without the money....

jonjb_2

Hi all, thanks for the responses. I have since received a payslip (on the day of pay rather than before)

In regards to a couple of your comments, Yes my wages do include a travel allowance which has been paid correctly but this has been swallowed up in pre arranged direct debits.

They are a massive company and wont mention names but they sponsor coronation st!

The mistake has arisen from holiday I have taken and not been paid for. They have deducted 14 days pay at a tune of £958!!! Holiday forms had been put in and its a clerical error on their part. This still does not change the fact that they have put me in financial hardship and have done nothing to rectify it.

I started contact wit them at 5.30 this morning and have still had no response back from them to even acknowledge the problem let alone rectify it. I have had to take today off because I cant afford to travel there and will have to have continual days off until it is sorted as I cant physically afford to get to there.

Are they liable to pay me for these days off as I have been forced to not turn up due to their error and also lazy approach to rectifying the situation?

Thanks All for your responses so far.

trailingspouse

oo, I think taking time off is a big mistake. You haven't been 'forced' to - you have merely made the decision that other things in your life take priority. As you said yourself, you were paid the correct amount of travel allowance. It's not your employer's fault that your direct debits also need to be serviced.
Something similar happened to me years ago - again a big employer (local authority). I'd just started working for them, and no money arrived on my first pay day. When I rang them, they apologised and said it would be included in the next pay run, the following month. I told them patiently that, no, they would send me a cheque immediately. And the killer blow was 'I've done my job, now all I'm asking is that you do yours.' That worked, and I got my cheque.
Stay calm, call them rather than e-mailing, and make sure you're talking to the person who can actually do something about it.

Nine_Lives

trailingspouse wrote: »

oo, I think taking time off is a big mistake. You haven't been 'forced' to - you have merely made the decision that other things in your life take priority. As you said yourself, you were paid the correct amount of travel allowance. It's not your employer's fault that your direct debits also need to be serviced.

I'm not saying you're wrong OR right here, but when i read the above i just thought how bloody ridiculous!! Not that you said it, but that it could/can/does happen.

If OP has ZERO money in their account, then short of walking the 60 miles or whatever it is, they're going to be unable to get to work. Unfortunately teleporting hasn't been invented yet.

I understand it's not the emlpoyers concern that OP has D/Ds to meet, but ATEOTD people need to live - and one part of living is paying various bills. It's just a fact of life. As OP said, they're not on megabucks.

Just seems ridiculous that an employer can basically say "yes we haven't paid you correctly, yes we know you have £0 in the bank, but tough luck - walk the 60 miles to work & if you're late then you're in for it"

duchy

Bottom line is you're unlikely to get this sorted out before Monday as most payroll departments in the kind of company you're talking about work Monday to Friday. There likely won't be anyone in who can authorise payment or do a transfer til Monday.

In your situation I'd find the money from somewhere to get to work today and tomorrow if these are scheduled days -even if it means using a Payday Loan and claim the charges for the loan (won't be much if you're paying back early say Tues or Wednesday -as an early payment). A large company will pay those charges as they are costs incurred by their error.

It's one of those situations that if you don't have friends or family who can help a Payday loan is acceptable -I agree it shouldn't happen -but it has so you just need to deal with the situation the best way you can until there is someone in who can resolve it. (I'd be livid too)

I think accusing them of a "lazy approach"in resolving it is a bit OTT-Admin offices don't have staff in at 5am to respond to emails any day of the week and are closed on weekends anyway.