A previous company owes me a month's wages.

faringdon

Hi,

A previous company never payed me a months wages. How can I get them to pay me?

From March 2017 to Mid Feb 2020 I worked for a company in Southampton, UK (Call it "Grendal" but that's not their real name).

In July 2018,  Grendal kindly  decided to  increase my pay from £40k to £42k 

per annum. (i was on PAYE) However, there was a proviso that my pay would be held back by  an extra 

month for this to take place. As such, over the months of July, August and September of 2018, 

I was under-payed by one full month’s wages. I was supposed to receive this pay when I eventually  

left Grendal but never actually received it.

This is a total of £3333.34 gross. 

I have all the Pay statements and also my corresponding bank statements to show all this.

I wrote to them in Dec 2024 (three weeks ago) to request the money but they haven't answered.

Its only now that i've got round to requesting it as i've been mad busy trying to start a business.

Hoenir

Why wait over 6 years to start your claim ? 

On-the-coast

you’ve made things much harder for everyone by waiting 5 years to raise this - via post (with all the time delays that involves - just before Christmas / NY break - so best advice is to wait a few more weeks before following up.  

I don’t think any meaningful pointers can be given until the company has responded in a positive or negative way. 

fatbelly

The debt would be statute barred in that it has been over 6 years since the cause of action.

Limitation Act 1980 s5

You can ask them to pay you but if you were to start a court claim they have a full defence to the claim

General_Grant

fatbelly said:

The debt would be statute barred in that it has been over 6 years since the cause of action.

Limitation Act 1980 s5

You can ask them to pay you but if you were to start a court claim they have a full defence to the claim

The OP says he left in mid-February 2020.  Five years will be up next month.

Flatfacedcat

I know this kind of attitude that some companies adopt with the intention to disrespect their employees. Also one of the companies at which I worked a few years ago did something like this to a few colleagues of mine. My colleagues never received their last payments the company owed them. Not even now after several years. Nothing. And this happened in a country within European Union, with strong laws and regulations about work and finance ethics. The only way to attempt to get something, unfortunately, is to go to the Court of Work in your country and sue them. This is exactly on what such companies are counting on: that their former employees will not sue them because usually bringing them to court implies spending more money than what one is supposed to receive, so even winning becomes financially inconvenient, so usually people don't sue them and just accept the inflicted damage of not receiving the money the company owes them.

penners324

Threaten them with court action

Savvy_Sue

penners324 said:

Threaten them with court action

Except that after so long, any debt is statute barred. So the threat may work, but no guarantee. 

saajan_12

faringdon said:

Hi,

A previous company never payed me a months wages. How can I get them to pay me?

From March 2017 to Mid Feb 2020 I worked for a company in Southampton, UK (Call it "Grendal" but that's not their real name).

In July 2018,  Grendal kindly  decided to  increase my pay from £40k to £42k 

per annum. (i was on PAYE) However, there was a proviso that my pay would be held back by  an extra 

month for this to take place. As such, over the months of July, August and September of 2018, 

I was under-payed by one full month’s wages. I was supposed to receive this pay when I eventually  

left Grendal but never actually received it.

This is a total of £3333.34 gross. 

I have all the Pay statements and also my corresponding bank statements to show all this.

I wrote to them in Dec 2024 (three weeks ago) to request the money but they haven't answered.

Its only now that i've got round to requesting it as i've been mad busy trying to start a business.

What exactly was agreed that you can prove (eg in writing, please quote)? 

As just looking at the evidence, this could just be seen as a missed payment in [July] 2018 - which is now over the statute of limitations. 

You'd have an uphill battle to prove that the payment dates were intentionally pushed later and so the missing payment is the last one in 2020 - which would then be (just) within the statute. 

Either way, find your evidence and move quickly if you plan to. 

penners324

Savvy_Sue said:

penners324 said:

Threaten them with court action

Except that after so long, any debt is statute barred. So the threat may work, but no guarantee. 

2020 is only 5 years

lincroft1710

penners324 said:

Savvy_Sue said:

penners324 said:

Threaten them with court action

Except that after so long, any debt is statute barred. So the threat may work, but no guarantee. 

2020 is only 5 years

The underpayment occurred in 2018