Ex Employer withholding final pay

cbabe82

any advice on the matter below would really be appreciated:

I recently handed in my resignation letter to my manager (Associate Finance Director of the company) and put 4 weeks notice as this is what I thought it was. My manager also thought it was 4 weeks as she accepted my letter and agreed what my last day would be, this was on Wednesday 6th March and my last day was to be Wednesday 3rd April. That same day I contacted my new employer to confirm that I could start on Monday 8th April.
On Tuesday 12th March I was at the airport ready to fly abroad on a weeks holiday when my manager calls me to tell me she had only just given my letter to HR and they are saying my notice period is 7 weeks! After having a panic attack worrying about my new employer it was sorted that my last day would be 24th April and I would start my new job on 25th April.
When I came back from holiday I decided to speak to my manager about shortening my notice period as I didn’t see the point in dragging it out. She agreed that my last day could be Friday 12th April as long as I finished processing the whole of year end (they put this in writing to me) it also stated that if I didn't finish I would have to come back on the Monday 15th April until it was done.
As far as I was concerned I had finished all of year end and everything to do with it. I was told of a couple of problems by my colleague of which I explained how to fix one of them, the other problem wasn’t noticed until the end of day on Friday 12th April and it was an error appearing that I didn’t recognise so I told my colleague to call software support on Monday morning. I also didn’t realise that this issue was anything to do with year end as we tend to deal with errors with the software all the time.
On Tuesday 16th April I received an email from my ex manager:
Hi Claire
As you are aware before you finished on Friday, there was a problem with the CIS submission as tax week 53 had not been closed off by you when you did Year End.
I was disappointed to hear that you chose to ignore this message and told Cxxxxx she can fix it with Safe on Monday. It was your responsibility to deal with this and we only agreed for you to finish on 12th as long as this was all completed.
Due to you not closing the last week, all the P60’s sent out to our workers and P14’s and P35’s that have been submitted to HMRC were only to tax week 52 and are all incorrect. We are now having to carry out various manual amendment functions to put this error right , not to mention the additional time it is taking myself, Fxx and Cxxxxx.
See the below email from Safe of what they have to do and the costs involved. HMRC have also informed me we will have to pay a penalty if the CIS return is submitted late and when we send them all the amended P14 and P35, but I do not know the costs or time involved as yet.
I want to inform you, that until this has been resolved, I will not pay you your salary next week (unless this has all been sorted by then), as I need to know the costs involved to put this right as we may consider deducting these costs incurred from your final salary.
Regards


I’m now unsure as to where I stand. I am owed 2 weeks wages to be paid to me on 26th April which equates to about £1k before tax and I really can’t afford to not receive this.
As far as I am aware it doesn’t say anywhere about holding my wages or deducting from them if something went wrong.
I did the best I could and worked the notice agreed so can they legally hold my pay?

dacouch

What notice period does your contract stipulate?

cbabe82

It does state 7 weeks

embob74

They can only withhold your wages if you agree to it. Have you ever signed anything to say they can do this? Is there a term in your contract?
If not then you should put a formal complaint in writing stating that any wages not paid are illegal deductions. You may want to print off a copy of this info to send to them:
https://www.gov.uk/understanding-your-pay/deductions-from-your-pay
When I was owed wages I did the above and they paid up.....and then they chased me in court for wages paid to somebody else as I didn't give sufficient notice.
So be aware you could later receive a court summons if they wish to pursue it. It would be best to keep as much proof of the situation so far for 6 years as that's how long they could have to chase you :-(