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Employer shorts wages nearly every week. What can be done?
Hi,
I'm writing on behalf of a mate of mine who works as a community care assistant, has been working for the same company for 14 years. Last year, the company was taken over by different people and it's been a mess ever since. Every week for the past 6 months, she is having to phone the head office to sort out shortage on her wages. It's not a simple of matter of 'You underpaid me' and everything is ok. They want to see time sheets, want to talk to the office manager, and God knows what else, making it a very time-consuming thing. It turns out that most of the other employees are suffering the same thing. One man in particular was on sick leave for several months, 3 months later they still hadn't paid him his statutory sick pay.
I just want to know if she is able to complain to somebody about this? Besides the head office that is. She's on a first name basis with the people there, she has to deal with them so often! It's ridiculous that these people are messing up the pay every single week, and she's having to go through the process of trying to get it sorted. phone calls cost money, not to mention the aggravation of it all. I just don't understand (neither does she for that matter) how a big company can screw up wages every single week? My mate is seriously stressed, and very frustrated, and has started to look for another job. I've been trying to persuade her to look into making a claim or something, but I have no idea what her rights would be in regards to this. I guess I don't see why a company should be legally allowed to continue making this mistake, causing hardship and stress to it's employees and even causing them to quit (some have already) without so much as an apology?
Re: Employer shorts wages nearly every week. What can be done?
Your friend is basically covered by the Employment Rights Act and in particular Section 13 which covers unauthorised deductions. Pay is a specific term of her contract of employment and to pay less than the amount agreed (by contract) is an 'unlawful deduction'. The Law is clear on this.
The remedy is straightforward, but fairly drastic. If speaking to them doesn't work, or if she is being required to produce unacceptable amounts of supporting documentation then she should raise a formal grievance in the first instance, addressed to as senior a person as she believes will resolve the issue (but with copies to line management). If this still does not resolve the issue, then action can be taken through the Employment Tribunal route for a breach of contract.
Any advice given is done so on the assumption that recipients will also take professional advice where appropriate.
If I have been helpful in any way - please feel free to click on the STAR to the left!
Please note that PMs may well not be answered unless they relate to issues which cannot be included in a Forum post, and also because I am only available infrequently at present
Re: Employer shorts wages nearly every week. What can be done?
Hi,
Thank you for your response I don't *think* they are deliberately doing this, although it seems kind of suspect. I mentioned to her 'constructive dismissal' because, in effect, the screw ups every single week ARE forcing her to heavily consider finding new employment as she can't take the stress for much longer. It seems as though the information from her local office (the one she works for) is erroneous when it arrives to the head office and that is where the mistakes in her pay come in. What I can't understand is WHY the head office is not taking actions in correcting this.
I will pass this information along to her and encourage her to make a complaint.
I have another question, if you don't mind In her job, she has to travel, using her own vehicle. Before these new people took over, she was being paid while travelling from house to house, plus mileage. Now, she is NOT being paid when she travels from house to house, although she is still being paid mileage. Is that legal? I was under the assumption that when travel was required in your job, that you were to be paid your hourly rate. Can anyone shed any light on this?
Re: Employer shorts wages nearly every week. What can be done?
Originally Posted by Mrs.Wifey
In her job, she has to travel, using her own vehicle. Before these new people took over, she was being paid while travelling from house to house, plus mileage. Now, she is NOT being paid when she travels from house to house, although she is still being paid mileage. Is that legal? I was under the assumption that when travel was required in your job, that you were to be paid your hourly rate. Can anyone shed any light on this?
Once again this is a cause for grievance. If she has 'always' been paid for doing a job, but is now not being paid the same amount for doing exactly the same job, then this is a fundamental change to her contract. Even if there is nothing written down, it will have become an implied term through Custom and Practice and any change has to be negotiated.
Not sure what the job is, but is she paid a set rate per hour, or per visit? Also, if using her own vehicle she must make sure that she makes tax refund claim if she is paid less than 40p per mile, particularly if she does less than 10,000 miles per year.
Any advice given is done so on the assumption that recipients will also take professional advice where appropriate.
If I have been helpful in any way - please feel free to click on the STAR to the left!
Please note that PMs may well not be answered unless they relate to issues which cannot be included in a Forum post, and also because I am only available infrequently at present
Re: Employer shorts wages nearly every week. What can be done?
Originally Posted by Sidewinder
Once again this is a cause for grievance. If she has 'always' been paid for doing a job, but is now not being paid the same amount for doing exactly the same job, then this is a fundamental change to her contract. Even if there is nothing written down, it will have become an implied term through Custom and Practice and any change has to be negotiated.
Not sure what the job is, but is she paid a set rate per hour, or per visit? Also, if using her own vehicle she must make sure that she makes tax refund claim if she is paid less than 40p per mile, particularly if she does less than 10,000 miles per year.
I asked about her job contract, if the new bosses drew up any sort of employment contract when they took over and she said No, not yet. Apparently 8 people have quit from this place since the new bosses arrived, and it was due to pay issues (as in the wage screw ups all the time) and also because of them nixing the pay while travelling. They are also about to stop paying for what they call 'Gap Time' which is when they have like an hour or two between clients. They used to be paid for this gap time and still are, but the company has announced that it is getting rid of this soon. So, basically, my mate could work an 8 hour shift and only get paid for, say, 3 hours if there were only a few clients scheduled that day.
She seems to be under the impression that this abolishing of the pay for travelling and gap time is completely legal, but I hope it's not for her sake! I might be completely naive in this, but to me it's diabolical (and should be illegal if it isn't) to basically have to give your employers free labor when travelling is part of the job description!! She told me that there are some employees who don't have vehicles and actually use the bus and train to get to patients-- when I asked her if they were reimbursed, she told me that only part of their expenses are!
My mate is a carer by the way and her job involves travelling to patients/clients' houses all day taking care of them. I believe they pay her 25p a mile and I'm not sure how many miles she does a year. I'll have to ask her next time I speak to her.
Thank you for your input! Any ammo that I can send her way is appreciated.
Re: Employer shorts wages nearly every week. What can be done?
Care work is a regular source of complaints over pay and conditions, and I have some experience of this first hand as my wife is a Care Worker. As I have recently written elsewhere, much of the problem is the way that the agencies are funded. Most have a mix of private clients and Social Services clients and the agency is paid 'per job'. Naturally private clients will not accept a rate which takes into account travelling time any more than Social Services will, and there is also the added consideration that Social Services contracts are now tendered for. Consequently some agencies have lost SS work which has led to a shortage of clients for workers, and a loss in income for the agency so that some have merged.
The agency my wife works for has workers on a mixture of 40 hour, 20 hour and Zero hours contracts. My understanding is that if an employee has a 40 hour contract, then there is an obligation for the agency to find 40 hours work for that employee each week and in the absence of sufficient work, they must still pay 40 hours wages. It is essential that your friend studies her contract as this will be the starting point for any grievance. I have to say that I think that it is highly unusual for somebody to be paid for travelling or waiting between jobs - again if this has always been the case then this must have been agreed at some point. My wife may do 10 clients in one day, but this will be say 4 in three hours then home for 3 hours before going out for an hour then back home again and finishing the day's work in the evening. The 10 jobs will be therefore spread over 14 hours or so, but she is paid for the 10 jobs. The rate of pay is sufficient to compensate for the 10 minutes of so between clients and when she is not working, she is at home.
I can only stress that she studies whatever paperwork that she has and includes any disputes in the grievance over the wages errors. If she has a contract stating that waiting and travelling time is paid for (or something which says "you are required to be available for work between x and x and will be paid at £x for those hours"), then she should complain if they have changed this and are now not paying her for all of those hours. Even if this is not specified in the contract but it has always been the case, then she should complain that payments always made as custom and practice for her job are now being changed without consultation.
Definitely speak to her about mileage - I recently helped a colleague of my wife fill in a claim for the last two years of business mileage and she has just received a cheque for over £1000.
Any advice given is done so on the assumption that recipients will also take professional advice where appropriate.
If I have been helpful in any way - please feel free to click on the STAR to the left!
Please note that PMs may well not be answered unless they relate to issues which cannot be included in a Forum post, and also because I am only available infrequently at present
Re: Employer shorts wages nearly every week. What can be done?
Ok, sorry I haven't responded in awhile. I just now managed to talk to my friend. She says she's going to have a look at her original contract, but she's fairly certain that it was an unwritten agreement that they all be paid whilst travelling and for the Gap time of up to one hour. She wrote to ACAS (I believe) and they informed her basically what you said. That they had no right to come in and just stop paying people for travelling and gap on a whim (paraphrased). She apparently raised these issues at a meeting and she was told that she didn't have a leg to stand on. They had another meeting in which one of the head honchos was chairing and HE told her she didn't have a leg to stand on as well. ACAS encouraged a civil suit, but told her to document every single piece of information and I think she'd just as soon find another job and wash her hands of the whole mess than have to do that. She said 'Who wants to document every single thing? I don't!'. However, I'm still at her to DO something, at LEAST about her wages being screwed up every week. If she didn't live 200 miles away I'd help her myself with keeping records and whatnot.
Anyways, thank you for your time and advice. I just hope I can get her to do something!
Re: Employer shorts wages nearly every week. What can be done?
HMRC (The Inland Revenue) allow you to claim 40p per mile for the first 10,000 miles (business miles) per year. If your mate is getting 25p per mile she can claim back the other 15p from the Revenue. Get her to call her local tax office for more info.
Also, having worked as a carer in the past, I was never paid 'Gap Time'. The travelling between clients was arranged as follows:- if you had a half hour slot at a client, this was to include travellng time, so you had 25 mins at the client, with 5 mins travelling time.
However, if her contracts states that she should be paid this, then she should be paid. Can Citizens Advice help at all?
Spotnot
Spotnot v MBNA and their nasty solicitors (on behalf of my friend)
Re: Employer shorts wages nearly every week. What can be done?
Hi,
When I spoke to her last, she said that she'd checked on the tax rebate for mileage, but because she only works part time and doesn't pay tax or NI on her wages, then she is unable to claim.
As for gap time, all that I know is that she gets paid for up to one hour between clients, but they will be stopping that soon. I think what bothers her and her colleagues more was the fact that they decided not to pay for travelling at all, except for the mileage. As some of her colleagues work over 60 hours a week, this puts a nice dent in their wages. Add this on top of incorrect pay every week, as in her case, and you have some very angry employees. I know that 8 people have quit so far since these new employers came in, and she is next to go (after 14 years!). This is why I think she could possibly have a case of 'constructive dismissal'.
Employer shorts wages nearly every week. What can be done?
cost money, not to mention the aggravation of it all. I just don't understand (neither does she for that matter) how a big company can screw up wages every single week? My mate is seriously stressed, and very frustrated, and has started to look for another job. I've been trying to persuade her to look into making a claim or something, but I have no idea what her rights would be in regards to this. I guess I don't see why a company should be legally allowed to continue making this mistake, causing hardship and stress to it's employees and even causing them to quit (some have already) without so much as an apology?
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Originally Posted by Mrs.Wifey
Any ammo that I can send her way is appreciated.
