Paid The Wrong Amount

Naganelf

Hi,

I have worked for the same company for the last three and a half years. On 19th March 2018, I took a different job with the company and was switched from hourly rate (with overtime) to a salary - with a pay rise.

When I was paid on 28th March, I received my basic salary at my OLD rate. I informed my manager, who called Payroll and they advised her that the cut-off date was 16th of the month and I would receive ALL of the correct salary at the end of April 2018.

I have just received my payslip for this month, and AGAIN, have been paid at the lower rate and not the higher rate. I am now owed the difference of six weeks' pay at the higher rate. Last time I was underpaid by this company, I was told they COULD NOT pay me until the next pay run and I would have to wait until next pay day.

My questions are:

a. Am I entitled to receive my unpaid salary IMMEDIATELY without waiting until next month?
b. Can I refuse to work until they have corrected my pay for the last two months as they are in breach of contract?

Thanks in advance.

BorisThomson

You're entitled to receive payment as per your contract. In reality, as it would take you several months to enforce payment via the courts, you'll get the money when you get it.

Refusal to work would also put you in breach of contract and likely lead to your dismissal. Very bad idea.

parking_question_chap

If it were me I would send a polite email to the payroll manager and cc the top manager in your department.

If you are well thought of in the company (only you can answer that), then potentially you could email the directors instead. Generally if a director tells somebody to sort something, it gets done.

nicechap

Naganelf wrote: »

Hi,

I have worked for the same company for the last three and a half years. On 19th March 2018, I took a different job with the company and was switched from hourly rate (with overtime) to a salary - with a pay rise.

When I was paid on 28th March, I received my basic salary at my OLD rate. I informed my manager, who called Payroll and they advised her that the cut-off date was 16th of the month and I would receive ALL of the correct salary at the end of April 2018.

I have just received my payslip for this month, and AGAIN, have been paid at the lower rate and not the higher rate. I am now owed the difference of six weeks' pay at the higher rate. Last time I was underpaid by this company, I was told they COULD NOT pay me until the next pay run and I would have to wait until next pay day.

My questions are:

a. Am I entitled to receive my unpaid salary IMMEDIATELY without waiting until next month?
b. Can I refuse to work until they have corrected my pay for the last two months as they are in breach of contract?

Thanks in advance.

Whilst frustrating, you are not without money to pay your bills etc. It is only the difference between old and new salary you are owed - I'm guessing its of the order of hundreds of pounds rather thousands

As the 6 weeks straddles the tax year, if your total pay is near to the tax bands, you need to double check the tax is paid in the correct year. Also, any pension contributions are paid at the new higher rate.

As Boris has indicated, to enforce your right to correct pay will take months via the courts and open you up to a whole world of pain, intended and unintended. Its much better to work with the company's processes and systems to get the result. Phrase it as solving their problem rather than you're annoying me. The I'm withdrawing my labour (I'm assuming you are not in a union?) is a very bad idea - they would not pay you (leaving you a lot worse off) and leave you open to disciplinary process.

Serendipitious

This happened to me many years ago.

It helped speed things up enormously when I submitted a detailed calculation to payroll. It felt a bit like doing their job for them, but I'd got tired of talking to different people and having to explain things from scratch the whole time, so setting it all out on paper helped and in the end they just had to get someone to check it and someone else to verify it and it was sorted. Things stayed amicable the whole time and it was nice to get a lump sum.

TELLIT01

It would be stupid in the extreme to refuse to work until the pay issue is sorted out. There has been an error made by payroll but you are still being paid. My advice would be to bite your tongue and wait until next payday. If it's not sorted then I would definitely take it up with senior management and then request (politely but firmly) that the underpayment needs to be corrected immediately.

Sncjw

Refuse to work will result in less pay the next month so not a good idea.