Not getting paid on time

Former Member

My hubby regularly doesn't get paid on time. He works full time and gets paid monthly, on the 20th. More often than not he does not get paid when he should, like today, as tomorrow is the 20th and a saturday then he should have been paid today.

He once had to argue with the wages people who claimed he had been paid and he insisted he hadn't- it turned out they had paid it into some random bank account which wasn't his! So that particular time he had to get a cheque from them which he then paid straight in at the bank- due to the weekend this cleared 6 days after pay day.

The usual story is that the wages people haven't put it through on time for it to clear into his account (more often than not these problems occur when the 20th falls over a weekend and he should get it on the friday before) however they have recently started using a new system whereby they pay the wages in and they clear the same day, rather than using the BACS system (which they failed to tell him about so last month he checked his account in the morning and the money wasn't there- when he challenged them they informed him it would go in later that day as they are doing it that way now and he should have been told so that any direct debits, standing orders etc going out on the 20th could be changed to a later day).

I'm not sure what the reason it today as he has only text me to say he won't be getting paid today but 'is on it' so I know he won't be a happy bunny, and I can't phone him as he is out on the roads.

Legally where does he stand with this? Can the company fail to pay their staff on time?

Former Member

As you say this is a regular occurrence then it probably happens with other employees in the company too. Has he asked them?

It seems that he would probably have a case for raising a grievance against the wages clerks in question.

In my experience wages and HR departments for companies are the biggest jokes around. You regularly see them sat around laughing and having a right good chin wag and they get away with it.
As I often say: There is nothing human about human resources.

Former Member

Mylo_B wrote: »

As you say this is a regular occurrence then it probably happens with other employees in the company too. Has he asked them?

It seems that he would probably have a case for raising a grievance against the wages clerks in question.

In my experience wages and HR departments for companies are the biggest jokes around. You regularly see them sat around laughing and having a right good chin wag and they get away with it.
As I often say: There is nothing human about human resources.

In most cases yes his colleagues are affected, except for the time when they did pay their staff on time but got his bank account details wrong so the wages went into a random persons account.

Most of the staff don't care! He did complain about the lady that does the wages as it took over 2 years and monthly reminders for her to amend his address on the front of his pay slip. Nothing got done though. The thing is it's the way they go about it as well, I was once due some extra money in my pay slip and didn't get it and the HR people were SO apologetic, even saying they would transfer it straight into my bank at a cost to them! For that reason I didn't mind and thanked them for the offer but said I was happy to wait until the next pay day. His boss doesn't even tell him, he has to ask, then they just act like it's no big deal.

Former Member

It isnt a big deal to them.
But you can bet every penny you have if their pay packet was affected theyd be on the case like the spots on a leopard.

I would advise he files for grievance and also seek advice from the CAB.

Former Member

Mylo_B wrote: »

I would advise he files for grievance.

I actually would say not to take it that far at the moment. because for example if he files a grievance it will affect all future prospects with the company.

Has he spoken to a line/duty/general manager regarding the issues? ie going higher than the payroll/accounts department? I'd make it all unofficial at the moment before stepping it up a notch.

How long does he usally have to wait for it, it is usually a case of suppose to go into on the 20th, but he gets it on the 21st? or is it a few days? I know it is annoying and yes they are breaking his contractual agreement. are you getting any resulting charges because of this? or just frustration.

I personally would just move any outgoing payments to later than the 24th to let it go through, and not expect it to tgo through till then.

Former Member

He works for a small, family run business and has spoken with his manager about it. His manager usually implies that the company are struggling (they have made redundancies) and that it buys the director some time to wait for money owed to him to clear through before he pays his staff. It is usually only a couple of days or so until he gets it, the worst time being a week. He has actually been paid his wages now, his supervisor had misinformed him that there were problems this month when actually it cleared into his account this afternoon.

When this first started to happen he use to get really frustrated, but he is use to it now!

Former Member

Fruit Loop wrote: »

He works for a small, family run business and has spoken with his manager about it. His manager usually implies that the company are struggling (they have made redundancies) and that it buys the director some time to wait for money owed to him to clear through before he pays his staff. It is usually only a couple of days or so until he gets it, the worst time being a week. He has actually been paid his wages now, his supervisor had misinformed him that there were problems this month when actually it cleared into his account this afternoon.

When this first started to happen he use to get really frustrated, but he is use to it now!

Oh it sounds difficult, It doesn't show a lot of job security when a company cannot pay their staff on time.

Former Member

I worked for company that did that. It can help the company out, but you have to look out for yourself. The DHSS didn't care that I hadn't been paid for two months when the company I worked for went under, it took me a very long time to dig myself out of that financial hole.