Underpayment do I have a case?

Miss_boo_boo

I work for a big employer. I came back from maternity. Pay ten days late. I had to pay nursery with little cash, as no maternity payments from employer. Two payments in one month. Both amounts under what I should receive. Too much came out for student loan, pension etc. I don't think the first two days of where I returned at end of Feb was paid. Payroll said these two days were in there. Not mentioned on payslip. KIT days in payslip, that's fine. I feel unfairly treated. Since manager spoke about my hours changing. This is in writing. Nothing more has been said about that. Makes me think victimisation. Do I have a case for tribunal? Also payslips and p60 read incorrectly. 

Ayr_Rage

Big employer, very unlikely victimisation, possibly just a mistake.
Get HR and payroll to put it all in writing.
Once you have all your ducks in a row and if it is still wrong, make a formal complaint and if you have one, get your union representative involved.
What would you be trying to claim at a tribunal ?

housebuyer143

As someone who just had to literally work out and spell out to their employer a mistake on my payslip before they would/could see it, it's very likely they just made a mistake and not victimisation. They will fix if if they really have done this and you can show that

If you can sit down and work out 100% the payslip if wrong and how then you will be able to explain it to them. Tax is set by HMRC based on your tax codes so check the tax code is correct as well. 

YBR

Years ago I had mistakes from my (big) employer related to maternity/return to work. It was incompetence, and probably is in your case.

Are HR/payroll taking it seriously? Mine paid me the right money quickly but treated it as a typo level of error and I did tell them it was "unlawful failure to pay my wages" and that (together with other things) there seemed to be something systematic in their dealing badly with maternity. I didn't leap to tribunal or pant myself as a victim but asked them to investigate the failings and respond so that they wouldn't fail again.

What you need first is the correct income as soon as they can, so make sure you have your ducks in a row, and know the complaint process. Be sure you understand what you expected and can explain why it differs, then make a complaint. Try not to be combative as that forces them onto the defensive.

Only if their dealing with a complaint involves clear discrimination is there any case for tribunal.

Advice above for everything in writing, and involving a union rep if you have one are good.

Devongardener

Write down exactly what you believe you should have been paid and when. Then present it to the payroll department, calmly, without suggesting you think you have been victimised.
If they have paid you 2 salary payments in one month you will have been charged more tax, pension and student loan, so this should be discussed, to see if it can be corrected, although it might be too late now, as it would involve rolling back the payroll to the date the first payment would have been made.   It could be connected to the date they actually process the payroll and the date you returned to work.  When I worked in payroll the cutoff point was 25th of the month.

Have you actually started working the different hours your manager put in writing? 

Marcon

Miss_boo_boo said:

I work for a big employer. I came back from maternity. Pay ten days late. I had to pay nursery with little cash, as no maternity payments from employer. Two payments in one month. Both amounts under what I should receive. Too much came out for student loan, pension etc. I don't think the first two days of where I returned at end of Feb was paid. Payroll said these two days were in there. Not mentioned on payslip. KIT days in payslip, that's fine. I feel unfairly treated. Since manager spoke about my hours changing. This is in writing. Nothing more has been said about that. Makes me think victimisation. Do I have a case for tribunal? Also payslips and p60 read incorrectly. 

Massive overreaction (doubtless based on a total absence of sleep for the last x months!) to what is very likely to be a simple error, if indeed an error at all.

Instead of going in all guns blazing, you need to work out exactly what you feel is wrong, put it in writing (something to do while your little one thinks 3.00 am is a great time for a crib party) to ensure you are clear, and then ask your employer to help you understand their take on events.

Undervalued

Miss_boo_boo said:

I work for a big employer. I came back from maternity. Pay ten days late. I had to pay nursery with little cash, as no maternity payments from employer. Two payments in one month. Both amounts under what I should receive. Too much came out for student loan, pension etc. I don't think the first two days of where I returned at end of Feb was paid. Payroll said these two days were in there. Not mentioned on payslip. KIT days in payslip, that's fine. I feel unfairly treated. Since manager spoke about my hours changing. This is in writing. Nothing more has been said about that. Makes me think victimisation. Do I have a case for tribunal? Also payslips and p60 read incorrectly. 

In theory, if your employer (or anybody else) through their negligence causes you to suffer a financial loss they are liable to reimburse you. You must however take reasonable steps to mitigate the loss as far a possible. You can't just say "it their fault so now I'm going to run the up as big a bill as I can"!

So, if you have genuinely suffered a loss (and they were entirely at fault) which you couldn't avoid then ask them very nicely if they will make it good.

They may well but if not then think very long and hard before taking action against your current employer - it seldom ends well! Obviously if you are leaving anyway, and don't need a reference then that is a different matter.

Savvy_Sue

Having had to work out maternity pay (statutory and employer) a couple of times, I can tell you that while it's not rocket science, it's not a trivial calculation. Not helped by SMP being paid on a weekly basis, and most employers paying monthly, so some weeks will have 4 weeks of SMP and some will have 5. Then factor in that the amount of SMP will change, probably part-way through a month. If there is any company maternity pay, that will also change, probably part-way through a month. 

Were you given a statement setting out what you would be paid each month, with the workings shown? I used to do that for people - of course I usually had to then re-calculate it completely because babies have a habit of not arriving on their due date. 

chrisbur

Savvy_Sue said:

Having had to work out maternity pay (statutory and employer) a couple of times, I can tell you that while it's not rocket science, it's not a trivial calculation. Not helped by SMP being paid on a weekly basis, and most employers paying monthly, so some weeks will have 4 weeks of SMP and some will have 5. Then factor in that the amount of SMP will change, probably part-way through a month. If there is any company maternity pay, that will also change, probably part-way through a month. 

Were you given a statement setting out what you would be paid each month, with the workings shown? I used to do that for people - of course I usually had to then re-calculate it completely because babies have a habit of not arriving on their due date. 

And then there are the Alabaster payments that may be due.  The first time I saw "The Alabaster case" I thought it was going to be a Sherlock Holmes story.

Savvy_Sue

chrisbur said:

Savvy_Sue said:

Having had to work out maternity pay (statutory and employer) a couple of times, I can tell you that while it's not rocket science, it's not a trivial calculation. Not helped by SMP being paid on a weekly basis, and most employers paying monthly, so some weeks will have 4 weeks of SMP and some will have 5. Then factor in that the amount of SMP will change, probably part-way through a month. If there is any company maternity pay, that will also change, probably part-way through a month. 

Were you given a statement setting out what you would be paid each month, with the workings shown? I used to do that for people - of course I usually had to then re-calculate it completely because babies have a habit of not arriving on their due date. 

And then there are the Alabaster payments that may be due.  The first time I saw "The Alabaster case" I thought it was going to be a Sherlock Holmes story.

Never heard of them ... but just done a google, and indeed we did have to take that into account. I think in fact we may have been more generous than we needed to be - consistently - if a payrise had happened at any point. 

DigSunPap

If its a large corporation and your payslips and p60's are incorrect, it's probably just an admin error. Sometimes these things can take a little longer getting up to speed when returning back to work. At least it was only 10 days and not a month. But for sure raise it with HR to get it straightened out before your next payday.