Can employer make me pay?

spidereyes

I've been working for my current employer for 5 months and things were going fairly well, that was until today.
It was made aware to me when I first started that our firm expects any mistakes to be paid back (either through salary deduction or work the time back)

I'm not denying I've made a mistake, I went to see my line manager as soon as I came aware of it but the circumstances are that I wasn't aware procedure had changed.

Say for example that A, B, C, D etc are all done way1 but X is done way2. Unbeknown to me there was now an F which had to be done way3, which meant I had now been carrying out things incorrectly.

This happened in December, an entire week before my other colleagues were aware of the change. I did say to my line manager I simply was not made aware by anyone, but they suggested that maybe I should have checked first which I can see is going to remain their argument.

I have to wait for the director to come in tomorrow to find out what is going to happen but I'm expecting that I'm going to either be told to repay the money or work the time back.
In money terms its around £600 which I simply cannot afford to lose from my wage, and in working the time back it's about 120 hours.

I'm totally freaking out and feel so sick, can anyone provided any advice whatsoever?

maninthestreet

If this change was not communicated to you through the proper channels (which excludes 'The Grape Vine' and 'Chinese Whispers'), then any deducation from your salary may be illegal. How did your work colleagues manage to find out about this change a number of weeks ago?

Tiddlywinks

I agree... it all depends on how you were originally told the processes you needed to use and how changes should have been communicated to you.

After all, you're not a mind-reader so you cannot know if things have changed unless you have been suitably notified.

How are changes in procedure / process normally communicated to staff? Are they published somewhere and is there then an expectation that staff will read certain Intranet pages or whatever to keep up to date?

pooch

spidereyes wrote: »

I've been working for my current employer for 5 months and things were going fairly well, that was until today.
It was made aware to me when I first started that our firm expects any mistakes to be paid back (either through salary deduction or work the time back)

I'm not denying I've made a mistake, I went to see my line manager as soon as I came aware of it but the circumstances are that I wasn't aware procedure had changed.

Say for example that A, B, C, D etc are all done way1 but X is done way2. Unbeknown to me there was now an F which had to be done way3, which meant I had now been carrying out things incorrectly.

This happened in December, an entire week before my other colleagues were aware of the change. I did say to my line manager I simply was not made aware by anyone, but they suggested that maybe I should have checked first which I can see is going to remain their argument.

I have to wait for the director to come in tomorrow to find out what is going to happen but I'm expecting that I'm going to either be told to repay the money or work the time back.
In money terms its around £600 which I simply cannot afford to lose from my wage, and in working the time back it's about 120 hours.

I'm totally freaking out and feel so sick, can anyone provided any advice whatsoever?

The Employment Rights Act 1996 permits an employer to make deductions from a person's pay packet if such deductions are:

• (1) authorised by legislation (such as income tax and national insurance deductions) or
• (2) authorised in your employment contract or
• (3) you have otherwise agreed to them in writing beforehand.

Therefore, in general, if you have not agreed to a deduction in writing, the employer cannot dock your pay!
However, there are special provisions relating to retail workers.
An employer may make a deduction from wages or demand payment from a worker on account of one or more cash shortages or stock deficiencies.
"Cash shortage" is defined as "a deficit arising in relation to amounts received in connection with retail transactions".
"Stock deficiency" is defined as "a stock deficiency arising in the course of retail transactions".
Therefore, if your till is short and you work as a shop assistant, your employer may make deductions from your wages.
That said, it is unlawful for an employer to deduct more than 10% from the gross wages of a retail worker on any one pay day.
Accordingly, where deductions can be made from a retail worker's wages to pay for shortages or stock deficiencies, the sums owed may be recovered in instalments but each instalment must be no more than 10% of the worker's gross wages on any one pay day.
However, the 10% limit does not apply to deductions from the final payment of wages. With certain exceptions, a deduction of any size from the wages of a retail worker is unlawful if made more than 12 months after the cash shortage or stock deficiency to which it relates was (or ought reasonably to have been) established by the employer.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2174183.stm

spidereyes

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

I agree... it all depends on how you were originally told the processes you needed to use and how changes should have been communicated to you.

After all, you're not a mind-reader so you cannot know if things have changed unless you have been suitably notified.

How are changes in procedure / process normally communicated to staff? Are they published somewhere and is there then an expectation that staff will read certain Intranet pages or whatever to keep up to date?

Normally an email comes around informing the staff.

Turns out this is something that actually came into effect from the end of November. I didn't know anything about it until Mid December after a colleague informed me (she only knew because it affected her directly and had actually been told) - she then told me, but there had been a period where obviously I was never aware.

Other staff were informed at the end of December and an email only went round in January.

I did a review of some work carried out in December yesterday and it then came to my attention that obviously for a short period I had been doing things incorrectly and not realised.

I did see the Director very briefly today but he didn't mention anything to me in regards to it, just have to wait and see I guess

ValHaller

spidereyes wrote: »

It was made aware to me when I first started that our firm expects any mistakes to be paid back (either through salary deduction or work the time back)

Does your contract actually say that?Or is the only evidence for this that someone just told you?

getmore4less

The mistake here is that person that should have communicated the change failed to do so, they are the ones that should be sanctioned by the policy.

if the way things are done is so critical they should be in a formal document updated in advance of any change and distributed.

The company could do this all the time retrospectively change things and claim back most of peoples pay(leaving them on minimum wage).

spacey2012

To be honest, start looking for a better job.

fed_up_and_stressed

If they do threaten you with sanctions challenge them as to when / how you were supposed to know this new procedure and ask for evidence that you were trained an email to say a process has been changed is not evidence that a staff member has read and understood what it entails

Suggest politely that if they wish to impose formal sanctions you will be making a formal grievance.

*Scarlett

Some companies / managers have poor communications and the first time that you find out about a new procedure is when you have done something wrong as regards to the new process.

You say that a collegue advised you mid Dec about possible changes - did you speak to your manager about possible adjustments to what you were doing?

I would not think that you would be responsible for any issues that arose when you were not aware of the changes ie from end of Nov.

But as soon as you became aware of any issues ie mid Dec you could have spoken to your manager to clarify.

The company does have a responsibility to communicate changes in procedure and for a manager to say "You should have checked first" if it is something you do regularly is not reasonable.

I do hope you get this sorted - I have worked for companies in the past where the first thing we knew about a new procedure was on the grapevine when someone had breached it - not ideal!

Birkonian

I have a relative who works as a fork lift driver, and he was required to sign a document agreeing that his employer can deduct any breakages from his wages.
He accidentally damaged a pallet whilst loading a trailer and will be charged £120 out of this months wages. This is unfair, as sometimes goods are inadequately secured and loads can fall and get damaged but the FLT driver still gets charged accordingly.