Final leaving pay deduction advice

BEAGLE99

Hi i am hoping there is someone on here that may be able to help / advise me.
I was working for Tesco 7+ years and I left my job mid July after being so fed up with the way I'd been treated.
I had ended up being off sick with stress and anxiety from the workplace.
Because of an injury in the previous year because of faulty equipment and then the further time of with stress i had ran out any forms of sick pay for the last 2 or so payslips.
So after deciding to leave i was expecting the final payslip to contain a gratia payment that was agreed by the senior manager for 2 days holiday that was messed up from the previous year.
I had raised a grievance about these 2 holiday days in Sept 2020 and the grievance meeting got delayed over a period of over 8 months and never even took place.

It was upon my leaving discussion with the senior manager about these 2 days holiday where he agreed the gratia payment of overtime in lieu of the 2 days holiday from previous year.
So with my leaving pay i was expecting that gratia o/t payment and aslo 6 days accrued holiday.
Those payments were on the payslip but there was a deduction of basic pay and location pay to almost £400.
I wasn't consulted at all about this deduction and after contacting work and eventually after chasing them up, all i got was an email saying they has spoke to payroll and that it was correct. There was no explanation at all or as stated any prior consultation regards the deduction  (as per my terms of employment contract)
So no actual explanation given to why they deducted the pay?!
Given the fact, as stated above that i wasn't actually receiving any pay near the end of my employment how could there be any dedcution?
Anyone able to shed light on this?
I've rang CAB today and hoping to get a call back from an employment solicitor in a few days but thought I'd try here as there is often good advice.
Many thanks 

Sandtree

Probably the most common deduction is if you'd taken more paid holiday than you'd accrued then that overpayment will be clawed back or training where your contract says you'll repay some or all of the cost if you leave within a certain period... the later cannot take you below NMW but it sounds like the only payment being made is ex-gratia so that doesn't apply.

Ultimately shooting in the dark though and only your former employer can advise. 

TBagpuss

What is your pay period? Is it possible that the deduction was because the payslip was laid out to show pay for a full month, then a deduction for the period not worked? 

(e.g. where I work, staff are paid on the 15th for the period from 1st -31st of the month, so if your last day was 15th, you would only be entitled to around half the normal monthly pay in the last pay slip, if yours is anything similar, rather depending on how the payroll is set up and wage slips set out, you might end up with a payment for the full month less a deduction for the period 16th - 31st , rather than it just showing pay for 1st - 15th)


It is reasonable to ask them to provide a breakdown of how the figures have been calculated so you can confirm that they are correct 

BEAGLE99

Sandtree said:

Probably the most common deduction is if you'd taken more paid holiday than you'd accrued then that overpayment will be clawed back or training where your contract says you'll repay some or all of the cost if you leave within a certain period... the later cannot take you below NMW but it sounds like the only payment being made is ex-gratia so that doesn't apply.

Ultimately shooting in the dark though and only your former employer can advise. 

Hi thanks
I haven't been in work since mid March as was off sick.. pay ran out.. sick pay ran out and accrued holiday was from 31st March to leaving mid July so no overpayment to be clawed back.
So no reason to deduct any monies?!

General_Grant

So what did they actually pay?
How was it shown on your payslip?

BEAGLE99

General_Grant said:

So what did they actually pay?
How was it shown on your payslip?

The gratia payment was there ... as was the accrued holiday pay. 
But also on the payslip was 
Basic pay 354.28CR (CR is a deduction)
Locationpay 24.14CR 
So 378.42 deducted... for what reason I've no idea...
I wasn't consulted about this deduction and even after asking I've not been given an explanation.. bar someone emailing me back saying that they had spoken to payroll and its right.
That's not an explanation to why thats been deducted!!!

General_Grant

BEAGLE99 said:

General_Grant said:

So what did they actually pay?
How was it shown on your payslip?

The gratia payment was there ... as was the accrued holiday pay. 
But also on the payslip was 
Basic pay 354.28CR (CR is a deduction)
Locationpay 24.14CR 
So 378.42 deducted... for what reason I've no idea...
I wasn't consulted about this deduction and even after asking I've not been given an explanation.. bar someone emailing me back saying that they had spoken to payroll and its right.
That's not an explanation to why thats been deducted!!!

In accounting normally CR would indicate Credit not Debit (which would be a deduction if it is looking at the sum in relation to the recipient of a payment, it would be a credit for the employer).

All you have shown here are two lines of basic pay and location pay which total £378.42 but I cannot see that that is a deduction.

What other lines appear on the payslip?  As above, "what did they actually pay" you?

BEAGLE99

General_Grant said:

BEAGLE99 said:

General_Grant said:

So what did they actually pay?
How was it shown on your payslip?

The gratia payment was there ... as was the accrued holiday pay. 
But also on the payslip was 
Basic pay 354.28CR (CR is a deduction)
Locationpay 24.14CR 
So 378.42 deducted... for what reason I've no idea...
I wasn't consulted about this deduction and even after asking I've not been given an explanation.. bar someone emailing me back saying that they had spoken to payroll and its right.
That's not an explanation to why thats been deducted!!!

In accounting normally CR would indicate Credit not Debit (which would be a deduction if it is looking at the sum in relation to the recipient of a payment, it would be a credit for the employer).

All you have shown here are two lines of basic pay and location pay which total £378.42 but I cannot see that that is a deduction.

What other lines appear on the payslip?  As above, "what did they actually pay" you?

Here is a breakdown of the gross pay
Basic pay  354.28CR
Location pay 24.14CR
Overtime1  213.20
Hol/bank hol leaver pay 575.64
Total  410.42

Hope that helps.. as stated i had been off work sick since mid March and all sick pay had ran out by May and i left mid July.
Yes i agree normally CR would mean Credit.. but this is Tesco and thier wage system is deliberately complicated which leads to staff losing money and tescos gaining money.

General_Grant

I think one problem is using "Overtime" for the "gratia" payment.  I would have thought the system should only pay overtime where normal time had been worked.
And you didn't work any normal time.

NI (and pension?) contributions should have been deducted too.

So I hope the employment lawyer gets in touch with you soon so you can provide full details of the payment and receive advice on how to take this forward.

getmore4less

Also even if off sick  most people are due full pay for the last week of their notice(when you resign)

What notice did the company have to give to you(offten the statutory 1week per year)
how many full years were you there.

General_Grant

getmore4less said:

Also even if off sick  most people are due full pay for the last week of their notice(when you resign)

What notice did the company have to give to you(offten the statutory 1week per year)
how many full years were you there.

The OP said they had been employed 7+ years, which I take to be less than 8.  It is unlikely their contractual notice period was more than 8 weeks (ie statutory plus 1 week).
So entitled only to one week's basic contractual pay as not working.

If they did have longer contractual notice (eg two months) I think they may not be entitled to any pay as they have already exhausted SSP.