Best course of action

maka_2

:mad:

Morning all

Just checked my bank account this morning and found out my employer BG have taken back off me £500 after speaking to HR they informed me for the past 2 months i have been over paid but now this has left me very very very short for the rest of the month.They say they e-mailed my manager to inform him last week however he left the business 1 month ago. Thing is i am on e-mail so surley they could have e-mailed me to?

What would you do if there is anything i can do?

to be honest it may sound petty but i no longer want to work for a company who do not have the common decency

destiny_star2006

If you have been overpaid i think that theres nothing you can do diddnt you realise you were getting over paid?

Badger_Lady

Yes, there's nothing you can do about the pay-retention... it's :mad: but it's happened to loads of us.

If you feel that strongly, start looking for a new job... but is it really worth the stress? In future, might be worth monitoring your pay / budget more closely and setting aside any overpayments.

LittleVoice

maka wrote: »

:mad:

Morning all

Just checked my bank account this morning and found out my employer BG have taken back off me £500 after speaking to HR they informed me for the past 2 months i have been over paid but now this has left me very very very short for the rest of the month.They say they e-mailed my manager to inform him last week however he left the business 1 month ago. Thing is i am on e-mail so surley they could have e-mailed me to?

What would you do if there is anything i can do?

to be honest it may sound petty but i no longer want to work for a company who do not have the common decency

It is wrong for payroll to rely on passing a message to you via your manager rather than directly. I am surprised they tried doing it that way - and certainly without getting any confirmation of your acceptance of their deducting the £500.

If you want you could raise a grievance - using the BT procedure. Though, if they are right about the over-payment, they no doubt have a contract term to allow them to retrieve the over-payment, they should make sure you are aware of it in advance and possibly accept the repayment in stages so that you are not suddently left with this drop in income.

Badger_Lady

LittleVoice wrote: »

It is wrong for payroll to rely on passing a message to you via your manager rather than directly.

In my experience, it's usually standard policy in large firms - I'm not allowed any direct contact with my HR/payroll depts at all, despite being relatively senior - when I do call and start asking questions, they always interrupt with, "Which of your staff is this on behalf of?", followed by "sorry, we can only speak to your line manager." :rolleyes:

They would certainly have only informed my line manager about a wages claw-back.

LittleVoice

Badger_Lady wrote: »

In my experience, it's usually standard policy in large firms - I'm not allowed any direct contact with my HR/payroll depts at all, despite being relatively senior - when I do call and start asking questions, they always interrupt with, "Which of your staff is this on behalf of?", followed by "sorry, we can only speak to your line manager." :rolleyes:

They would certainly have only informed my line manager about a wages claw-back.

We are not talking of someone asking about someone else's pay but about payroll communicating with the person who's pay it is!

I would certainly be raising a grievance that payroll had not ensured the message got through. They emailed someone who had left and therefore could not pass on the message!

angellotz

i think that's really bad - i got overpaid a few months ago when i switched from part time to full time, and they paid me part time for my full time month - this was just over £400 and i paid it over 3 months.
i would be really cross - not so much at the fact that they'd taken the money, more so that payroll didn't inform you directly. i also think that a decent firm would give you the option to pay it back in installments.

Badger_Lady

LittleVoice wrote: »

We are not talking of someone asking about someone else's pay but about payroll communicating with the person who's pay it is!

Yes I know - neither was I! In my company, the will only talk to your manager. They will not talk to you directly under any circumstances about your own pay.

You're right, the process fell down when OP's manager no longer worked there, but the policy was probably right.

garbadine

I'm pretty sure that there is a legal obligation for employers to reclaim money in a "reasonable" manner - i.e. they shouldn't be taking back a large sum of money that will cause you hardship, especially if you weren't aware there had been an overpayment made.

LittleVoice

Badger-Lady

Sorry, we must agree to disagree.

I find it absolutely wrong for payroll not to contact the employee directly when payroll has made a mistake and need to sort it out. If it's their policy, it's a bad one.

daveboy

16 Excepted payments

(1) Section 15 does not apply to a payment received from a worker by his employer where the purpose of the payment is the reimbursement of the employer in respect of—
(a) an overpayment of wages, or
(b) an overpayment in respect of expenses incurred by the worker in carrying out his employment,

Employment Rights Act 1996

You can't do a thing about them clawing back an overpayment.

I am in a similar position, only the company trying to claw back what we think is an error, is a previous employer of my partner, and the law from what I've found isn't as clear cut.