We under/over paid you

[Ginger Tea]

Late last year or early this I'm not too sure, there was a stink going around work that some people were getting extra pay for something or other and it transpired I was one of the ones not getting what ever it was.

A meeting was held with the disgruntaled co workers upper management and HR and I found out about this meeting on the day it happened (probably the whole damn thing too for that matter), I sat in on it not knowing if it was applicable to me or not as I had no idea what exactly the deal was, for all I know it could be some working tax credit for parents, that being the case rules me out as I am AFAIK not a father.

Turns out it was for Working Time Directive, which I've never looked up, if I was eligible, I would get it back paid, if not, it doesn't affect me as I am not recieving it anyway, anyone getting it and should not, would have to repay it over however long.

Just before Feb's pay day I was told that I was elegible for it, but it did not appear in that or this pay slip, having said that, seeing as alot of other people not in the meeting were also elegible, might mean that they are staggering the back pay over the next few months.

I am told I'm getting just over £800 before tax (530 after) but I am also given a break down of the calculations they made to get that number starting from October 2008, but a second sheet says it is from October 2004 and I was over paid in other parts of my timesheet and I owed them £730 which was taken out of the true ammount of back pay of almost £1630.

Granted I don't understand most of what is written on my pay slip so just see Gross Tax and Net, but the reason for one deduction was

Claimed Saturday and Sunday Enhancement as well as overtime, claimed weekday overtime whilst on sick leave.

Luckily we had that month's timesheet and rota to hand so I photo copied it and found no sick days, I did claim overtime on a weekend, because I finished after my official finish time, hell one Sunday I worked from 05:00-21:00 8 hours over time thank you very much.
Then I remembered that the pay month is actually the previous months hours, even so the two days I had sick were not entered into the time sheet, so I do not know where they got that info from costing me nearly £80.
The OT whilst sick popped up a second or third time but for years I do not have ready access to, not even my calender I do my time sheet from, why we don't have a clock card system I do not know. But the worked the weekend and claimed overtime popped up way too many times, well duh I worked after my finish time.

Once it was 06:00 till job done, then that finish time of aruond 4 got increased as did work, in the end I spent 6 months (without checking) doing 06:00-19:00 untill they split the shift, it is now a 3 man job, but it used to be just me in a giant fridge for those hours with less than half a dozzen co workers working in the building after 5pm.

Granted it's money I didn't have and that helps me plug my £3k IOU to my savings account from sorting out my brothers housing situation, but to find out it was way more than that and I've been "over paid" IMO wrongly, I just don't want to explode on whomever is on the phone at our off site accounts division, I want to be able to rationally say "look, I started at this time and finished at that time, take out the 8 hours (7.5 working and .5 unpaid lunch) and that matches up with what I put down." but depending on what kind of run around I might encounter, who knows what might happen should I take it up via the phone. I would much rather email with scans of the rota and time sheet to say "How does this work then?".

One co worker was told she owed 1.6-1.8k in overpayments, she I cannot see being civil over the phone ...

[Aethian]

This is the very reason why I write down what time I clocked in, if I took a lunch or not, and what time I clocked out. I have this for every single day I have worked since I started at the USPS. I have found one 8 hour error since 2005. But to me thats worth it for the yearly pocket calander costs I've had.

[Racket_Man]

and people wonder why (and look at me funny) when I print off, from the POS system, copies of my daily delivery report and pay period (bi-weekly) time sheets. and since we went to direct deposit only for our paychecks I always print off a copy of my pay stub from the payroll processors website AND compare it to the time sheet I printed off prior.

I know people who have NEVER looked at their pay stubs since we went all electronic transaction

[Ginger Tea]

I've not had chance to really look at the A4 tiny font sheet that I got, the woman who 'owes' 1.6k or there abouts got her's enlarged and I will get mine enlarged tomorrow or Tuesday when I go in to see about setting up a pow wow with whomever.

The reason I have not had chance is the same as what I think all the pay backs were, I worked 06:00 - 21:30 Friday and 06:00 - 20:30 Saturday and I have done this quite often when some one fails to show up at 11. So my Friday overtime if done on a week end, might look like I am claiming my 06:00 - 14:00 as overtime by mistake as all they have is a form that says hours claimed not start/end time.

I am now photo copying the weekly rota which we sign out on and my time sheet, I did alot of the year whilst on break yesterday and need to get it into chronolgical order (as some months were mixed) and put into a folder, as it goes back to October 2004 I have to find all my page a month calenders for the years where the rota's might be archived.

As you saw I put 24 hour clock times on my start/finish times as I find it easier using a calculator that way, I had to write PM next to yesterdays time as it was entered in as 8:30 by my supervisor and I don't want any one to think that I went home early instead of effing late.

In short we are the only part of the organization with staggered starting times and one of the few with mandatory weekend work, I have a fixed rota of Monday-Sunday, Wednesday-Tuesday, Friday and back again, so the Accounting department is more used to the brunt of 9-5ers and me with my 6 months or more of 06:00 - 19:00 throws them.

Also I am going to type up my times and print out three copies, one for me, one for the files and one to go with the Accounts copies to show that on weekends I am claiming overtime and not botching up my pay slip.



Edit:
One of the things that irks me about this is the main boss man said I was entitled to 800 and odd befor tax, not 1600 minus over payments and gave me the impression a form I signed was a late ariving form to retroactivate the WTD pay, not an "I agree to this ammount and cannot dispute it now ner ner ne-ner ner." which some think it is, saying I should not have signed it.
If he said the 1600 number and overpayments I would have said "can you show me this?" as it was he collared me just as I got into work and as the break down sheet, which he failed to inform me of the deductions was too small to read. So I see the minus signs and original back pay when on break.

It feels like he was being underhand (telling me the low number) and obfusticated things, giving me the impression that I am signing form A but in reality it is form B.
I was thinking, you know what, next time I'm working at 11, I'll go at 19:00 on the dot regardless of how much is to be done leaving the other two to finish off, if anyone stropps, well till I get my overtime money back, why should I stay one minute later?
But obviously they would just keep me on the early shift, but as I take the 13:00 lunch, I would just stretch it into a full hour going home at 14:00, I also would not say yes to comming in on my day off or staying late, normally I don't mind, nor did I mind doing the whole day when it was normal hours, actually I'm to blame for the split shift in a way, I booked leave for my dental appointments, but they were canceled a day or two in advance by her being sick so I said I didn't want to waste the day off as I would need it again for the reschedule, but as they had done the rota they had me come in at 9 to do odd jobs till he was done and ready to do the change over.
After half a dozzen sickies and a change of dentist (same building) they had decided it was cheaper paying two people 8 hours each than one 8 + overtime, so they made it an official rota.

[Andara Bledin]

I know people who have NEVER looked at their pay stubs since we went all electronic transaction

My brother is one of these people.

He was bitching the other day about his last job not putting him in the 401k despite his filling out the forms. I told him it was their fault for not adding him, but that's why he should check his paystubs. If he'd not dropped his responsibility to be aware of what's happening to his money, he could have corrected their mistake within the first week.

I have direct deposit, but I glance at my pay stub every single week to ensure that my hours are correct and the right things are being deducted. So far, my current workplace has never made a mistake in the 16 years I've worked there, but if they do, it'll be corrected by the next week.

^-.-^

[powerboy]

I had always wrote down my hours that I had worked. If I had a sheet that I wrote the hours down, then I would make a copy of it of the time period.

[Ginger Tea]

Update time:

The woman who 'owes' £1,600ish told me monday that she had an appointment with the payroll people today and that they were comming here so I said to head honcho to let them know that they should stay for a second person to have a chat (ie me) and I got an 11:30 slot which was late due to her's over running as she had to querery more deductions than I and most of mine were deducted by mistake.

Well I filled in the time sheets correctly for the most part, if it was my weekend to work and I was absent due to sickness or annual leave, then I should not write 7 1/2 on that day as I should only write when I am actually working.
So the few times I was off over the weekend for one reason or another, those I had to accept as a mistake and let them keep the money as I should not have entered that data.
I probably just filled them in at the start of the month not knowing I would be sick on some random weekend and even if I had not, I was un aware that I should leave it blank untill today.

Another was for the short time I started at 5am, I should only fill in the column on monday-friday as it is part of the weekend enhancement, but I was probably filling it in as I came across a 5am start not even noticing that it was a weekend.
Mind you I probably didn't fill in a few days here and there when we first started the shift change, I am not going to sift through that time frame to say
"Oh BTW I forgot to claim these days." I made that mistake and am willing to let those 5am starts go at the normal rate, but I don't think it was a massive ammount per hour extra anyway.

I asked what and where I should write for times I finish after 20:00 as that is meant to be a diferent bracket, I mostly just keep it in the same column as regular OT and I was told what I was doing was the correct way as that column is for the people who actually work a night shift.
My concern was over time starts at 19:00, do I, when finishing at 21:00 (as I had recently), then split the over time as one hour before 20:00 and one after, write 2 hours down with one being in the 20:00 or later column, as that would confuse me too much as those are rare 'hitting the fan' finishing times.

The 'Claimed over time whilst sick" they had me listed as off for longer than the two days I was sick on one month, but the rota I photo copied showed I was working and the guy confirmed this.

Them not knowing my shift hours or the fact that we migrated to a split shift resulting in the occasional me staying all day lead them to think I was miss-entering weekend OT as the weekly enhancement, but as it wasn't every weekend, I couldn't be making the same mistake week in week out for years now could I?
As I showed them when they said which dates, my start time is 06:00 and my finish is 19:00+, one was 05:00-21:00, I have no idea why it was so late, all I know is someone phoned in sick and I agreed to stay, so they are, when they get the tax year out of the way, going to liase with the guy who checks the time sheets to confirm start/finish times to say that I did indeed work those hours and not botch my form.

I also asked why the tax on £800 was almost the same as tax on £1500 my last pay sheet.
I am allowed 622ish per month tax free, so although it says £1500 taxable pay, in reality it is £900, so the tax is similar as there isn't much between 8 and a bit and 9 hundred.
But when the pay sheet says £everything minus pension is taxable, I assume that that is the case, not £everything minus (pension plus tax free dosh).

So due to the above mistakes on my behalf, I accept I was overpaid about £130-150, which they have taken back already, but I have to wait for them to start checking my times to get the rest of the 700ish back, least I know now when it's given on a seperate pay sheet it will be all taxable, mind you if on the same as my monthly one, the numbers 'should' match deductions wise.

[siead_lietrathua]

i admit, i'm one of those people that rarely checks their stub. but in my case i work the exact same shifts and hours every week. since every paycheque's the same, unless there's a discrepancy in what gets deposited i don't bother checking.

[Ginger Tea]

I'm still looking at it as 'free money' as I did not have that money the day before I got it and tbh if the shit storm had not happened I would not know I was entitled to it.
Mind you as others not in the meeting were entitled to it too, I guess I would have found out eventually that I was due it and would be in this situation regardless.
If we had clock cards or written start/stop times on our time sheets, all those wrongful deductions would have been left well alone, they are not to know I often stayed long after my official end time as someone is sick and I am covering for them or they are in covering for someone else, still resulting in my staying long after I should.

Hell instead of geting out at 2pm Tuesday, I find out one guy went home early and his job needed to be done by the end of the day, so I say I'll finish off.
That done I find the next part of his day still undone, someone had started it inbetween their jobs, but as their stuff had resumed, I finished that off too, so when head honcho pops by and asks why I'm still here I just inform him that 'blokie' as I can never remember how to say his name, went home sick and this needs to be done before whom ever does the next day comes in.

fair enough, some one had to do it, the woman who started what I finished off came back when she was done with her bit to find it all done, great she can get out on time, nope, even though wednesdays stuff was ready for the morning, they wanted the next days stuff done too, so if I had not done the rest of it, she would have had to do two days worth.

[Nekojin]

If it were me, I'd figure out the difference between what they're giving me, what I think they should be giving me based on the timecards, and deciding whether that difference is really something I want to make an issue over. If we're talking $20, it may be wise to just let it drop, as making a fuss here could be cause for a mark on your record, or even termination if you make a big enough stink (and yes, I'm suggesting that the "owes $1600 lady" might end up being fired over this, if she's as contentious as you suggest).

As much as I agree that employees need to stand up for their rights (I've walked out of a job mid-shift for crappy treatment), there are some times it's better to just dummy up and deal.

[HYHYBT]

£1600 is probably enough to be worth the risk... if she's right that it's hers. That's just too much to let someone steal without trying to stop them.