Wage slips make no sense, where to go for help?

sofababe

My daughter works in a nursery school, owned by woman who doesn't seem to know what she's doing.

DD's wage slips were hard to understand as she had a set amount of core hours, then a portion of the annual holiday pay was also paid monthly, plus any extra hours she had worked. Originally DD was doing an apprenticeship, but once she had completed that, she was on NMW. Last May (we think) the boss made DD acting manager and gave her a pay rise to £7.40 p/h. None of that was put into writing :mad:

The way DD is paid changed a few months ago, now she gets paid for the exact hours she works, and the holiday pay is then paid during the 6 weeks holiday. Much more sensible. However, we have been looking at her wage slips and her hourly rate is actually £7.25, not the £7.40 she was told.

We are now trying to decipher her older wage slips, and the hourly rate seems to be different each month, but is always looks well under NMW.

Is there anywhere or anyone we can take the wage slips to that would work out what DD was really being paid. We can't afford to pay an account to look at them. CAB?

I'm fairly sure everyone that works there is on a different rate, the owner says she uses a payroll program that sends all the info off to HMRC. Sage??

Also, DD has never earned enough to pay tax or NI as she is only p/t, but there are random NI payments on some of the old wage slips.

We suspect that the owner has been under paying DD for months, so is there anyway we can claim back pay, as I said the payrise was never put in writing but if she was getting less than NMW previously that's against the law surely?

Any advice gratefully received.

redpete

sofababe wrote: »

Also, DD has never earned enough to pay tax or NI as she is only p/t, but there are random NI payments on some of the old wage slips.

Are they really random or are the months she's paid NI coincide with the months when her hours were more than usual and hence her pay was more than usual?

greensalad

Could she request the payrise in writing before kicking off? Say it's for a phone contract or something, then when it's written say that she has reviewed her payslips (also for phone contract) and thinks it's off. That way she can try and get it sorted but in a non-accusatory way.

PasturesNew

If it was a formal, proper, legal, apprenticeship, then the NMW for those is well under £3 (close to £2.50 I think).

Edit: Just checked, it is £2.68 for apprenices up to/including aged 18, or 19 in the first year, then NMW depending on age. https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates.

sofababe

DD was on an apprentice wage while on the apprenticeship, then she was put up to NMW. I'll try to get hold of a wage slip but she's not about till the weekend.

The woman that owns the nursery is a slippery fish, no set pay day, wage slips as and when she sees fit to distribute them. She doesn't work at the nursery either so getting hold of her is tricky. She doesn't respond to emails or texts in a hurry, and gets her husband to field any phone calls.

She is selling the nursery to a committee lead by the local primary school in time for next term so hopefully things will be much better then. It doesn't make any profit, she tried to GIVE it to my daughter earlier this year.

If she has been underpaying DD what channels should we take to recover monies owed?