wages always wrong

fkelanne

ill start at the beginning,
in july last year a friend of mine got cruted over 2 another company as this com won the new contract and had 2 keep the work force.
a few weeks in he only got £270 (rathre than £370 with travel) the new com said they couldnt give him travel money so he went to the cab and two weeks later they said ok we will pay you it but you have to be taxed for it, with was ok but £40 less.
months went on and my freind throught it was sorted, well kind of a few weeks here and there without the travel but they put it on his next weeks wages.
now he worked a weekend 4 weeks ago, but the company forgot to put that weekend pay also the travel. he was expecting £600 this week his boss said it would be on his wages this week!!!, just checked and he only got £340,he is still owed a sat and sunday plus 1 weeks travel.
he has a £550 mortgage and £320 loan coming out every month he cant effort them 2 do this!!!

what can he do?
is there anything he can do?
and can he go higher then his boss?

Savvy_Sue

I'll start at the end.

Yes he can, if there is someone higher than his boss ... but he needs to realise that his boss may be annoyed by him doing this (which is not a reason not to, just something to be aware of).

But first your friend needs to be sure that HE is meticulous about filling in timesheets, putting them in on time etc so that there is no excuse for the company not knowing what they should be paying. Is he? Not saying he's not, but if he goes to his boss's boss, and his boss says "Yeah, but his timesheets are always late / illegible / wrong / need amending" then that could explain the problems. If it's the boss not submitting them on time, or procedures not in place to do so, then they should sort it out.

I think btw, that the new company is correct to be taxing him for money paid to cover travel to and from his regular place of employment.

fkelanne

right , yes he tells his boss not 2 forget 2 put the extra pay on his wages every week since it has been due!
and the tax for travel isnt a problem he has to pay that.

fkelanne

its not just him there are two other lads that pays are always wring aswell.

Oldernotwiser

You don't normally pay tax on travel expenses; it's totally different from getting a company car or similar benefit. Shouldn't he check his wages out with payroll/accounts/HR. I wouldn't think his boss was the right person to deal with it.

fkelanne

he is getting it on next weeks wage, he asked his boss why it hadnt been put on this week for and all he could say was i dont no!!! but it will be on next week so my freind said can i have a look just to make sure, and it says sat, sunday and one weeks travel plus next weeks wages and travel. so finger crossed for him that he will get it next week!!! thanks all

liney

If my boss was that incompetent with my hours, i would write weekly to payroll with my correct hours in the form of a timesheet so that they can check with the boss if both hours dont tally up.

At least that way differences should be sorted before payday, and the boss might be embarrassed enough to get it right from then on.

Savvy_Sue

fkelanne wrote: »

right , yes he tells his boss not 2 forget 2 put the extra pay on his wages every week since it has been due!
and the tax for travel isnt a problem he has to pay that.

See, that's what I meant about is your friend being meticulous with timesheets etc. When I was doing payroll for an out of school club where no two weeks were the same for anyone, no-one TOLD me or the manager anything: they recorded their hours on a timesheet, the manager signed to confirm they'd worked those hours, and I paid for what was on the sheets. Since Playworkers got a higher hourly rate if they were 'acting up' as Senior PW, that was recorded on those sheets as well. Sounds like their whole record keeping system is a bit lacking ...

Which is not necessarily your friend's fault, but coming up with a positive suggestion about how to resolve the problem might go down better than a general rant about how incompetent the boss is.

I used to have a very good memory, and generally could have paid those wages after one glance at the timesheets. But I didn't rely on memory, I worked through each sheet, every week.

Now I work somewhere else where I don't 'do' the payroll, but I am partly responsible for telling our payroll people about any changes. The other day there was some overtime due for several people: a colleague tried to 'tell' me what I needed to know, and I asked her to write it down for me. And we all got a % payrise recently: I worked out the increases, and then got a colleague to check them for me - but it was all written down, not in someone's head.

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

You don't normally pay tax on travel expenses; it's totally different from getting a company car or similar benefit.

Depends surely on whether it's travel to and from your normal place of work, or additional expenses incurred in getting to and from a place that isn't your normal place of work.

There is oodles of guidance on the HMRC site about travel expenses and under what circumstances they are taxable if anyone has the will or the time to look ...