Deductions from final pay

Scarlettw800

During employment I lost £5,000 of my employer's money, I had packed it to go to the bank and between leaving my desk and getting home it was misplaced (I'm not even sure I took it from my office). An investigation was undertaken by my employer into this and it looked at though it was going down the disciplinary and dismissal route. As a result I decided to resign from my position. I was pregnant at the time and therefore qualified for SMP even though I no longer work for the company. In my final pay my employer has advised they will pay the 39 weeks SMP along with my remaining salary and accrued annual leave and will be deducting the £5k from my net pay.
My contract states that they can deduct losses sustained due to carelessness/negligence etc, but this leaves me with £3k pay for the next 9 months during my maternity. Are they able to do this?

Savvy_Sue

If your contract says that they can, they can.

If you'd stayed for the disciplinary, you might have stood some chance of finding out what HAD happened - but you resigned, which even the most understanding employer could take as an admission of guilt.

If you're planning to look for a new job after your m/l, will you need a reference from this job?

sangie595

If the contract states it, then yes. If you want to challenge it, you'd have to take it to court and prove that you weren't negligent or careless. I think you'd struggle to prove that, since you packed money to bank and it was in your possession and so it should have gone to the bank - how can you "misplace" £5k that is your responsibility and in your possession? It isn't exactly an amount that you'd drop behind the sofa. I'm surprised that they didn't call the police in, because many employers would for such a large amount of misplaced money.

Sorry, but if they choose to enact the provisions of your contract, and they have, it's your problem to prove that they shouldn't. They hold the money and the contract. It would take (successful) legal action on your part to get that money back.

Scarlettw800

I don't feel that I should have been required to take the money to the bank in the first place, especially not when pregnant.

The reason I decided to resign was due to the whole situation causing me serious stress and health issues, I ended up in hospital at 32 weeks pregnant in early labour, they knew this and I had been a perfect employee up until this issue so I would hope they hadn't seen this as an admission of guilt. Yes, I will be looking for a new job after my Mat leave.

sangie595

Scarlettw800 wrote: »

I don't feel that I should have been required to take the money to the bank in the first place, especially not when pregnant.

The reason I decided to resign was due to the whole situation causing me serious stress and health issues, I ended up in hospital at 32 weeks pregnant in early labour, they knew this and I had been a perfect employee up until this issue so I would hope they hadn't seen this as an admission of guilt. Yes, I will be looking for a new job after my Mat leave.

I'm sorry to say this but any employer is likely to see your resignation as an admission of guilt, and so may potential employers later. Being a model employee "before you steal the takings" doesn't make someone innocent of doing it - otherwise nobody would ever be guilty. And if you didn't think you should have been taking money to the bank that was something to raise before you lost the money. Your opinion on whether you should have to have taken it doesn't change the contractual position. And regrettably, there is still a question of where £5k went. If you weren't neglectful or careless with money that "may not have even left the premises" then where is it? I'm relatively sure you didn't steal it as you'd be daft to post here like this if you did - but if you were not careless or neglectful of a large amount of money, what were you? Maybe the investigation might have found out the answer to that, but you didn't give it a chance to.

Takeaway_Addict

Scarlettw800 wrote: »

I don't feel that I should have been required to take the money to the bank in the first place, especially not when pregnant.

The reason I decided to resign was due to the whole situation causing me serious stress and health issues, I ended up in hospital at 32 weeks pregnant in early labour, they knew this and I had been a perfect employee up until this issue so I would hope they hadn't seen this as an admission of guilt. Yes, I will be looking for a new job after my Mat leave.

Why, was it to heavy?


You messed up and as others put you're lucky the police weren't called tbh

Savvy_Sue

Agree, if you're concerned about any aspect of your job, pregnant or not, you don't wait for something to go wrong, you raise it as a risk assessment.

We sometimes have to take cash to the bank, not usually as much as £5000 but can be lots of change therefore heavy. Our insurer covers us as long as two of us go together - defence against mugging, defence against 'losing' it en route, defence against running off with it and having a good weekend.

Also it's not really part of 'my' job to deal with money, but I'm in the team which does deal with money, and apart from our manager I'm the only one with regular access to a car. So rather than my manager spending HER time driving the money around with a colleague, I drive the money around with a colleague.

My point is that if you were happy to deal with banking cash, but felt that there were additional risks once you were pregnant, that should have been part of the pregnancy risk assessment.

And I asked about future employment plans, because there's a very real risk of an entirely truthful reference from this employer which makes future employers a bit wary (to put it mildly).

[Deleted User]

No CCTV where you work?