Hugely underpaid at work

Jaxtkb996

So i looked at my payslip at the end of the month and saw i was massively underpaid almost £500-£600 ,

I had a booked and approved holiday to leave the country etc but a few days before i fell ill and couldnt move out of bed and struggled to even speak, i texted my manager the first day of being sick due to not being able to speak , the next day i managed to ring the duty manager and tell him i wouldnt be able to come in but the last day i was physically uncapable of texting or calling in and my partner left early that day for work and i wasnt able to call in and let them know , thats what happened just before my holiday started .

After i looked at my payslip i rung the HR department and they told me along the lines of "we cancelled your holiday" (my holiday started on the day of the months cut off day so shouldnt even have an effect on the end of months pay anyway) and didnt let me know, she also said that "working here for under 18 months you dont get SSP yet on my payslip i recieved £154 in SSP and a basic pay of £374 which is about 1/4 of what my regular pay is.

The women at HR said i have to do a return to work form and we will take it from there but this deduction of pay has put me in debt , overdraft and loans along with rent and phone bills etc.

I have 0 experience in things like this and would really like some help to what i can do and what my situation is i really need help, thank you in advance!

elsien

Did you go on the holiday or do you have a sick note to cover the time off?

daytona0

Jaxtkb996 wrote: »

So i looked at my payslip at the end of the month and saw i was massively underpaid almost £500-£600 ,

Would be helpful to give a breakdown of what you feel they should have paid to you.

I had a booked and approved holiday to leave the country etc but a few days before i fell ill and couldnt move out of bed and struggled to even speak, i texted my manager the first day of being sick due to not being able to speak , the next day i managed to ring the duty manager and tell him i wouldnt be able to come in but the last day i was physically uncapable of texting or calling in and my partner left early that day for work and i wasnt able to call in and let them know , thats what happened just before my holiday started .

What a weird illness! Day 1 you struggle to speak and can't move out of bed, day 2 you can speak and day 3 you couldn't do anything!

My biggest worry, however, is whether this illness either miraculously disappeared on the commencement of your holiday (enough for you to go to the airport, check in and fly to a foreign country) OR whether you had to cancel the holiday and incur possible cancellation fees!

Forgive me for bringing an element of skepticism to the table

But may I advise that, given you do not have 2 years employment, you should be grateful in a way to have a job

After i looked at my payslip i rung the HR department and they told me along the lines of "we cancelled your holiday" (my holiday started on the day of the months cut off day so shouldnt even have an effect on the end of months pay anyway) and didnt let me know,

A bit dirty on their part. Not sure whether they can do that!

she also said that "working here for under 18 months you dont get SSP yet on my payslip i recieved £154 in SSP and a basic pay of £374 which is about 1/4 of what my regular pay is.

Did you confuse COMPANY sick pay with SSP? Because company sick pay can sometimes be time-dependent, and would explain the 18 months thing. I think SSP is a lot less than a lot of company sick pays.

The women at HR said i have to do a return to work form and we will take it from there but this deduction of pay has put me in debt , overdraft and loans along with rent and phone bills etc.

I'm not sure what deduction you are talking about?

Holiday surely doesn't matter in regards to pay.

SSP is all you'd be entitled to and you (presumably) researched that whilst off sick?

sangie595

You can't be on holiday and also sick. Sickness overrules holiday - that is why you get holiday periods back if you are off sick. So you notified them that you were sick, but did not notify them that you were better. Hence, sick pay.

I think that datona0 is not the only one who will be appearing sceptical, so prepare for some searching questions from HR / your manager. Being physically unable to text or phone would suggest that you were paralysed, and I would have thought that might require a visit to the hospital in an ambulance. After all, texting requires only the use of ones fingers.

Mersey_2

Jaxtkb996 wrote: »

After i looked at my payslip i rung the HR department, she said that "working here for under 18 months you dont get SSP yet on my payslip i recieved £154 in SSP...

It's certainly worrying that someone in HR said that! At least whoever does the payroll paid you SSP (given it's the law).


https://www.gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay/eligibility


Hopefully she meant to say the company doesn't pay full sick pay during the first year or so.


(Although, sadly very little surprises me these days re some firms' HR depts).

Mr.Generous

does your company policy allow you to text in sick? check employee handbook and see if you complied with notification requirement. I would expect your employer does not believe a word of your story, remember employment law is NOT like criminal law. They CAN say they don't believe you. They just have to have "reason to doubt" rather than beyond reasonable doubt.

I would imagine some form of disciplinary action would result if you made false declarations about your reason for absence. If you did in fact go away I would not be at all surprised if they asked to see your booking confirmation and exact travel dates. If you have !!!!ed them off they may well try and discipline you for something. If your planning to use the same story as stated above then good luck!

It is not an easy story to accept as truthful. If you think this is a difficult post to digest I suggest you prepare yourself for your return to work interview and try and imagine the questions you will face and your likely responses.

Jaxtkb996

I paid alot of money for that holiday and it wasnt a pleasure trip i wouldnt even call it a holiday it was a family matter, i was going on it no matter what , maybe it was nerves from flying im not sure but i was still sick while on holiday, and i have worked for 2 years just not for this company .

Im still on my probation contract despite working 4 months over the probabiton peroid.

The deputy manager at the store also has a past of bullying and victimizing people and i believe he is the one whos targeted me over this matter aswell personally.

The holiday ive taken is not even in the question as my holiday started the day the payroll cut off day was set in place , but the company is using that as an excuse. My holiday should affect the end of this months pay not the past months pay

CKhalvashi

I'm still sceptical of this.

You were too ill to talk, and 3 days later jetting off to wherever.

As you've worked for the company for less than 2 years, as an employer I'd have been requesting your passport, and if there were appropriate stamps, would have asked you to leave. I'd probably still have done this if you were working for me for more than 2 years, largely because, from your own post, it would appear you'd have lied to me.

The company has paid SSP as you were on sick leave, hence weren't on holiday as you were too ill to work. This is a correct and legal way of dealing with this situation.

shortcrust

You didn't do anything wrong by being off sick and then immediately going on booked annual leave, but you did do something wrong by not telling them. You should have called work on the morning you were no longer on sick leave. Sick leave continues until you tell your employer that you're better. It's sounds like the company have just followed standard procedure.

It's really important to keep your employer informed of when you start and end sick leave. I'd be seriously unimpressed if an employee went from sick leave to a holiday without telling me. Also, in this situation I'd assume that the bit about being too ill to text was an outright lie. Like CKhalvashi, I'd be questioning your future.

It sounds like it's going to be sorted and that you'll get the money in the end. Unfortunately there's no one to blame but yourself for the short term difficulties.

Jaxtkb996

How many times do i have to say my holiday started on the cut off date for last months payroll, my holiday and being sick should not affect last months payslip, im leaving the company either or. Treating the staff the way they do shouldnt even deserve the right to operate as a business.

I was ill before my holiday, i paid thousands to go months beforehand, it was a family matter that needed attending too as soon as possible and i went as soon as i had saved up money, even if my arms and legs were not working there was no way on gods earth i would not have gone.

The holiday started the day the months pay date ended. It shouldnt have affected last months pay is what i am saying. Believe it or not the truth shall not change.

They didnt let me know they cancelled my holiday which is breaking the law s13 rights to work law. On my payslip says my hourly rate is 5.38 which is illegal again as that isnt even minimum wage, and that is far below what i earn p/h

I worked for say 150 hours at a rate of say £8 p/h and got paid for 80 hours at a rate of £5.38 p/h (BEFORE MY HOLIDAY STARTED)
now can u see what i am trying to say without throwing accusations?
All im asking for is help and advice , not judgement/opinons or straight up accusations.

charlie3090

The problem is you didnt tell them you were no longer sick,
they have treated you as if you were still sick as you didnt tell them otherwise,
you will still have the holiday to take at a later date I expect.
The problem seems to be that your holiday started on payroll cut off date so should not have affected this months pay except for the 3 days sick if I have read this correctly,
all you can do is query with your payroll and hope if the mistake is theirs they can advance you maybe.