Over/underpayment of wages problem.

dotchas

The short version,
I work for a very large employer. In April 2020 my manager admitted she had made a mistake in notifying payroll when I changed my hours in 2017. So my wages had been reduced but not everything ( a pay protection issue) 
Basically I had been overpaid for 3 years. I knew this would have to be paid back so I thought,  the sooner the better. I kept chasing for a figure. There was an added complication of now being entitled to a new pay protection. 
Now, nearly 2 years later I still owe them and they owe me, unfortunately I owe them more, but payroll have been unable to come up with satisfactory calculations. Some of the figures they have sent me are laughable.
I along with my union rep approached management to ask the amount to be written off due to the way it has been handled. We gave them 3 weeks to get back to us. 
Its now been 4 weeks and have heard nothing. A grievance is the next step.

My health has been severely affected with all the stress. Lack of action from management has added even more stress.

Is there anything else anyone can suggest? Legal help? I really am at my wits end.

[Deleted User]

Establish with them why their figures are laughable and contribute your own.

Eventually, you should get to a place where you agree what you owe and then you can simply pay it. At least, in the meantime, you're benefiting from an interest free loan.

Savvy_Sue

You don't need legal help while you have the union: ask them to help you start the grievance now. 

Are you now being paid correctly? If you are still being overpaid, do you know what you SHOULD be receiving? Hopefully you have managed to start setting something aside towards the overpayment. 

(In fact, if you seek separate legal help you may lose the support of the union.)

dotchas

Union support could be better so feeling a bit adrift. 
I am being paid correctly now. They owe me back pay for protected pay from 2020 to 2021. 
I would like nothing more than sort this mess out but if I had not questioned the first figure given I would have been paying back far too much. 
For one month I was overpaid £5 and their calculations want me to pay back over £200 for that month.

dotchas

Deleted_User said:

Establish with them why their figures are laughable and contribute your own.

Eventually, you should get to a place where you agree what you owe and then you can simply pay it. At least, in the meantime, you're benefiting from an interest free loan.

I have been trying to do this for nearly 2 years.

Savvy_Sue

dotchas said:

Union support could be better so feeling a bit adrift. 
I am being paid correctly now. They owe me back pay for protected pay from 2020 to 2021. 
I would like nothing more than sort this mess out but if I had not questioned the first figure given I would have been paying back far too much. 
For one month I was overpaid £5 and their calculations want me to pay back over £200 for that month.

Chances are your rep is overloaded: is it just one with the employer? You could ask if it could be escalated to branch, your employee rep / steward may not have enough experience. 

or, re-reading this:

dotchas said:

I along with my union rep approached management to ask the amount to be written off due to the way it has been handled. We gave them 3 weeks to get back to us. 
Its now been 4 weeks and have heard nothing. A grievance is the next step.

Has all this been in writing? I'd see if the union would write along the lines of "we assume that since no reply has been received within this period that you agree to write off the overpayment to dotchas". 

Do you have a ballpark figure for what you might owe them?

getmore4less

I would knock up a simple spread sheet(or paper) for every month since this started right up when the payments became correct + a few where the discrepancy is zero before and after.

Maybe  April 2017(if started after that) to April 2022  to have complete financial years

5 years 60 lines on the sheet.

Compare to what they have and work through the discrepancies.
IF they are taking too long I would not worry as long as you respond to any discrepanies when they do come up with new figures.


Each line has your amount for the over underpayment, maybe a few extra cells with the calculation is not to hard to do

Once you have the net amount you have target 
Some of that should already be available as its two years of knowing about the overpayment.

You could work out how long it will take based on what you can afford and a proposal can be made.

I would be looking at 2+ years to spread the payment if you don't have enough saved.