Potential breach of employment contract and overpayment

[gordon77]

Hello,

On 8th Nov 2019 I was made redundant by my employer, while working on a full-time 40 hours contract. This occurred about 4 months after returning to work from maternity leave. At the very last stages of the redundancy consultation process, I noticed my annual salary had been reduced by approx £1000 without my knowledge and raised it with the managers. Since then I have written to the Company on number of occasions but they simply ignore the issue. A month later, the company claimed they have overpaid me by approx £1800. After writing to my ex manager and Payroll, asking for breakdown, they have reduced the amount owned to them by approx £500. However no one comments or wants to talk about my salary being reduced without my consent and they verbally have said that I was on 10 days authorised leave in June 2019 after maternity leave. This appears incorrect as I have text messages confirming that I was at work at this time. Any suggestions on what to do next will be appreciated.

[ULA]

There are two things here. Firstly the issue of your reduced salary without your knowledge which is potentially an unlawful deduction of wages, and secondly is there either a provision in your contract or did you give your written consent for them to deduct any overpayment from your wages?*

Did the breakdown you received provide you enough information against which you can check against your records? If not then you need to ensure you get that as a matter of urgency.

Also what was the date that there was potentially an unlawful deductions of wages, because if the matter is not resolved you have 3 months less a day in which to start early conciliation with ACAS, which could lead to an employment tribunal claim if unresolved.*