Garden leave and last months pay

AleMrsT

Hoping someone is able to help me.

I handed my notice in on 7th October, and because I'm going to a competitor I was put on garden leave, with my notice ending on 4th November.

I had a letter acknowledging my notice and saying I'd get a letter detailing the terms of my garden leave and any deductions, this letter was received on 14th October, and it stated that I have acrrued 13.62 annual leave days, and if any of these are unused it will be assumed that the days are used whilst on garden leave. There was no mention of deductions or part pay.

I got my payslip through on Friday and I am only going to be paid £441 on payday, which is 25th. My usual pay is £1058. Between 26th September and 24th October I have had one day off as absence for a hospital appointment, and did have 3 days annual leave booked, which I've obviously not needed to take as they have put me on garden leave.

I have asked my manager to query the pay amount with payroll (we are not allowed to raise queries directly), and she has to do this by 12 noon on payday (tomorrow) for it to be corrected this month.

My questions are: I thought garden leave was full pay, they never explained that I wouldnt receive full pay and I could have done some temporary work whilst I was off if they'd explained this to me, should they pay me full pay?
Can I insist this is rectified immediately, as my rent (£560!) is due on 1st of the month.
Can they charge me for exceeding the accrued holiday allowance if the days that take me over the allowance are the ones booked during my garden leave period?

I can't make any sense of the amount as there is no mention of deductions or an explanation anywhere!!

Guest101

It should really be full pay, but you may need court action (or threat of) to get it

AleMrsT

I'm willing to go down that route if I have to, I'm going to give it until 2pm then call the office to chase up with the manager. Part of my garden leave terms state that I'm not allowed in to the office so I cant even go in to query it! So glad to be out of there.

sangie595

AleMrsT wrote: »

Hoping someone is able to help me.

I handed my notice in on 7th October, and because I'm going to a competitor I was put on garden leave, with my notice ending on 4th November.

I had a letter acknowledging my notice and saying I'd get a letter detailing the terms of my garden leave and any deductions, this letter was received on 14th October, and it stated that I have acrrued 13.62 annual leave days, and if any of these are unused it will be assumed that the days are used whilst on garden leave. There was no mention of deductions or part pay.

I got my payslip through on Friday and I am only going to be paid £441 on payday, which is 25th. My usual pay is £1058. Between 26th September and 24th October I have had one day off as absence for a hospital appointment, and did have 3 days annual leave booked, which I've obviously not needed to take as they have put me on garden leave.

I have asked my manager to query the pay amount with payroll (we are not allowed to raise queries directly), and she has to do this by 12 noon on payday (tomorrow) for it to be corrected this month.

My questions are: I thought garden leave was full pay, they never explained that I wouldnt receive full pay and I could have done some temporary work whilst I was off if they'd explained this to me, should they pay me full pay?
Can I insist this is rectified immediately, as my rent (£560!) is due on 1st of the month.
Can they charge me for exceeding the accrued holiday allowance if the days that take me over the allowance are the ones booked during my garden leave period?

I can't make any sense of the amount as there is no mention of deductions or an explanation anywhere!!

Legal action will take longer than sorting it out, but I doubt it's going to be resolved by the first of the month. If you had leave booked during garden leave, the employer appears to have been clear - accrued leave would be included in the garden leave.

The first thing you have to do is get an explanation of how the wage has been worked out. You have obviously asked for that and now you have no choice but to wait for that explanation. So I would concentrate your energy on talking to your bank about honoring your rent payment, or to the landlord about it being possibly late. It may be that any correction due could be separately inputted, but it isn't uncommon for people to have to wait for the next payroll run for corrections. And you would still get it faster that way than through court action.

Guest101

AleMrsT wrote: »

I'm willing to go down that route if I have to, I'm going to give it until 2pm then call the office to chase up with the manager. Part of my garden leave terms state that I'm not allowed in to the office so I cant even go in to query it! So glad to be out of there.

Ultimately your physical presence wont help you.


Either they pay what they owe (and it could be that £441 is what they owe) - if there are legitimate deductions


OR you go to court. Given the payment is not late, I would wait until the 26th, then issue a claim letter to them, giving 10/14/28 days to rectify (whichever you feel is reasonable), failing that apply to MCOL (google it) and pay the fee

sangie595

Sorry I just noticed your financial details on the signature. I doubt talking to the bank may be productive. Would the landlord wait a week or two if necessary

AleMrsT

sangie595 wrote: »

Legal action will take longer than sorting it out, but I doubt it's going to be resolved by the first of the month. If you had leave booked during garden leave, the employer appears to have been clear - accrued leave would be included in the garden leave.

The first thing you have to do is get an explanation of how the wage has been worked out. You have obviously asked for that and now you have no choice but to wait for that explanation. So I would concentrate your energy on talking to your bank about honoring your rent payment, or to the landlord about it being possibly late. It may be that any correction due could be separately inputted, but it isn't uncommon for people to have to wait for the next payroll run for corrections. And you would still get it faster that way than through court action.

Thank you. The holiday I had booked is 3 days, which takes my used holiday over the accrued days for the entitled period. My query is, can they charge me for those days for using more holiday than I've accrued when the holiday days in question were during the garden leave period? I understand if I'd only used 10 days holiday allowance they would assume the other 6.52 days were used during the garden leave, but as I was off anyway I didn't need those 3 days holiday.
I will have no choice but to talk to the landlord, I also need to let stepchange know that I can't make the debt repayment.
And I'm assuming I'll also get paid from 26th Oct to the end of my notice period on 4th November in the November pay run,but judging by this month's payslip I'm not holding out much hope they'll actually bother.

getmore4less

They cannot double count the accrued unused holiday as holiday during the garden leave period.

Undervalued

Keep in mind that they can tell you which days you must take as holiday. So if they opt to treat the last 13.62 days of the so called garden leave as your holiday then technically you are "at work" on the other days (in other words must be available and can be called in at a moments notice).

They can cancel your pre booked holiday by giving you twice the notice (six days for 3 days holiday) and push that to the end too if they so please.

So, no holiday to cover the hospital appointment therefore either sick leave or unpaid leave?

You do not have the right to do part time work during the garden leave (or holiday) as you are still a contracted employee of theirs.

OK, very pedantic but can be done.

sangie595

I think that at this stage there's little we can really advise on without an explanation from the employer. There might be a good explanation. It might be a mistake. Both can and do happen. But it's impossible to second guess.

TBagpuss

What is your pay period? Are you paid in arrears or part in arrears, part in advance?

If you are normally paid paid partly in advance that might partly explain it, as you'd only get around half the normal monthly pay.

As others have said, the employer has the option of rolling any untaken holiday into the gardening leave, rather than paying you unused holiday pay on top.

Unfortunately until they give you the break down you can't check whether it is correct or not.