Money Moral Dilemma: Should I report my colleague for not telling payroll he's been overpaid?

Mum1957

When the audit happens it will probably come to light then.  He will need to explain why he didn't report the mistake to payroll and face the consequences. 

Mikeyboy01443

What a bunch of tell tales lol... cant stand people who go around telling on others because its the 'right thing to do', as others have said what would you gain from doing it, more fool you for telling them in the first place

DavidL58

If the situation was reversed would you be wanting a colleague to inform on you ? How does that make you feel better ?

I've worked for plenty firms, especially agencies, who love chiselling staff out of wages. Doesn't make it right though, if you're the one doing it.

Say nothing. No good deed goes unpunished.

Pretty much your own fault anyway. Don't you check your payslip every month ? 5 months before you noticed. You think you might have thought you'd only get it for about two months or so before they noticed and you could deny knowing. Think you may have got cold feet once it went on so long.

Incidentally, I've worked away also and it isn't your firm paying it.

PennyPinch

I would be annoyed if I had had to pay it back when someone who supposedly didn't alert them of the mistake didn't.  However, if it took 5 overpayments before you alerted them then I think you can't be too holier than thou.  

Steel_eye

These things tend to get nasty, I would keep out of it. Let your colleague deal with it however they feel fit.  You dealt with your own situation admirably.  By all means warn your colleague that when this comes to light it will only get messy, but tell them that you do not intend to inform anyone, it is up to them.

I had experience of this nearly 20 years ago when I was off sick for five months.  One of my team leaders stood in for me and was paid a 15% salary uplift in compensation for the additional responsibility.  When I returned to work the payments continued. About nine months later HR contacted me and asked me to set up a meeting between myself and my team leader to be chaired by HR.  When I asked why they told me that my team leader was to be disciplined for gross misconduct resulting from having stolen several months additional salary enhancement.

I checked the company disciplinary procedure to find that in these cases I should conduct an investigation and make recommendations to my line manager.  As my line manager was involved I reported to my Divisional Director.  HR had no role other than to implement any action which the investigation might recommend.  

I found that my team leader was aware of the over payments.  She had put aside the funds in an old account to keep it separate.  She spoke to my line manager a couple of days after the first overpayment, and dropped him an e-mail to confirm.  When the second overpayment happened she reminded him and also rang the payroll department.  Due to having a strict email file limit (I think it was only 25Mb at the time) she had deleted the e-mail to my boss.

My boss confirmed that he had had several conversations with my team leader. He too had deleted the email.  He told me that he had completed the forms to formally end the secondment, and had spoken to either Payroll or HR but could not remember which. He was not the most organised manager I have known.

Payroll told me that they had a note on my team leaders file, at about the date when the phone call was supposed to have been made, but the instruction was ambiguous, the person who had taken the call had left the company, and no action had been taken. I asked Payroll to calculate a figure for the total overpayment and make arrangements with my Team Leader for it to be repaid.

HR were unable to tell me if they has received the form ending the secondment, or if they had had a phone call from my boss.

My report to the Divisional Director recommended that there was no case to be answered.  That arrangements were in place to return the funds to the company. My recommendations were accepted.  I copied in HR, they were not happy, they insisted that I convene the meeting they had requested, which I refused pointing out that I had followed company procedures.

The following week my team leader repaid the money which she had been paid in error.  The next day the COO's office rang me to convene a meeting, when I refused they threatened me with disciplinary action for failing to discipline my staff.  One of the old guard in HR, who was about to retire, came up with the wording for an "apology" on my part which enabled me not to back down, but allowed the COO to leave me alone.

My team leader had to endure a disciplinary hearing.  It could not be chaired by my Divisional Director as he had approved my recommendation.  One of the other Divisional Directors found her guilty of theft, and gross misconduct.  She was suspended pending appeal.  Her appeal was chaired by one of the non-executive directors.  He opened the session by saying that he had read the evidence and found that there was no case to answer.  The whole procedure had taken over four months.  I put an awful strain on me and my family.  I dread to think what impact it had on my team leader.

I spent my whole working life employed by this FTSE 100 organisation.  I am proud of what I did and much of what the company did, but this period which followed a Private Equity buyout was deeply saddening. When I joined at the end of the 70's we had a department called Welfare, this later became Personnel, and finally Human Resources.  The name says it all.

elsien

adra04778 said:

Your colleague has had a stroke of luck 😀 while go snitching on them just because you told them, let sleeping dogs lie, or it could bite you on the bum.
What would you gain from it  a smug feeling 🤔  now thats petty don't you think.

Snitching? Isn’t that something that school children do? 

neilmorgan

Brie said:

I'd mention to the colleague that they are being dishonest and that by not telling payroll they could be dismissed without warning if/when it's discovered.  

It's already been discovered which is why it suddenly stopped.
It sounds like someone made a mistake and wants to keep it quiet.
I wouldn't interfere. 

CapeTown

I was overpaid when I changed roles within the nhs. I had to suck up the monthly docking of my salary until it was paid off. Also nurses are struck off the professional register for not declaring overpayment. Your friend is claiming money he is not due and thus he is very dishonest and a thief. He should tell payroll not you but they will realise eventually and he could end up dismissed or even convicted.

2702

I am not surprised that most comments appear to say do nothing - this is a reflection on our society of ignore and it will go away. So sad.

MrsPound

Your employer has a legal duty not to discriminate between employees. I think the previous comment, suggesting you ask payroll to check that you have not been treated differently to other employees in the same situation, and confirm accordingly, is worth considering.