Accused of theft and not paid wages

[Missimaxo]

I had a part time job over summer, starting May. Unrelated to the incident I left the job in the middle of August as I moved away. It was probably a zero hours contract although never officially deemed as such. I had no guaranteed hours and could be told in the morning or the night before not to come in and I didn't get paid for that day. I never got any paid holiday. In my last two weeks, on one day, the tills were down by £50. I dont know if there were other days of discrepancies. The tills were shared between enployees. There was no official accusation against us but lots of implied accusations. I will explain that the cash handling in the business was very lax, if one till didn't have enough change we would take it from the other. We would also move money between the tills as needed. There were no individual till log ins, only basic tills but they did record totals for each transaction. I presume the £50 down was across both tills and not one down with the other being up. Employees were not responsible for cashing up only the owner.

Payday has just been and they haven't paid me. I have texted my employer and they have said a security team are investigating the tills being down. I didn't take any money from the tills but I did move money between tills. There was cctv only covering 1 till I believe and not the other. Is my employer entitled to withhold wages pending the investigation? Can she dock my pay by the amount missing?

Can anyone explain my rights and what might happen. I have seen that I can send a letter outlining how much I am owed. I believe I should also be entitled to holiday pay albeit only a couple of days as I wasn't there long. If this fails I can see that ACAS can do conciliation and after that I can take it to tribunal or small claims court. What will happen if she formally accuses me of theft?

For clarification, there has been no grievance raised as yet, no suspension, this text is the first time I knew of an investigation. I am worried that she could fabricate an allegation against me using the fact that the tills were down. I presume I could SAR her to provide the CCTV footage of me but if it includes other people then I won't get it and they way we worked it could easily include other people. If she does accuse me am I entitled to see her 'evidence'. I presume she could also take this to the police if she believes she has enough evidence, and she could be vindictive and take it to the police if I pursue the money through tribunal etc.

Thank you for any advice, all of this is worrying me a lot for something I didn't do.

[MIKE770]

ULA may be able to advise

[ULA]

Did you have a contract of employment and within that contract was there the ability for your employer to withhold wages due to till/stock shortages or for any other reason?

Are you owed more than the amount of the till shortfall?

You would be entitled to holiday pay which would be a pro-rata caluclation of the hours that you worked.

Did you get a payslip each time you were paid?

[Missimaxo]

No formal contract of any sort and so not written down that they can withhold wages for any reason. And yes I'm owed around £500 and the shortfall I was told when I was still there was £50.

[Missimaxo]

Apologies just reread your post and missed a bit. I have some but not all payslips but was paid by bank transfer so do have evidence of working there as long as I did

[ULA]

Well firstly it is not good on your ex-employer's part that they did not provide you with any written terms.

Since there is no contract that allows them to withhold wages then I suggest that in the first instance you write to your ex-employer confirming that you deny any theft and that she needs to provide the required proof that this is the case. Go on to say that notwithstanding that, she has no contractual right to withold salary for work carried out and that it is in fact an unlawful deduction of wages which also includes witholding holiday pay.

State that you require payment of the outstanding monies owed within the next 7 days and that if this does not happen you will proceed with an Early Conciliation process with ACAS.

Hope that helps and any questions just come back to this thread.

[Missimaxo]

Thank you so much I'll try this

[Missimaxo]

Just thought I'd update, I've now been paid the wages I was owed. No holiday but I've decided to drop that as I have university to worry about and it wouldn't be much. The boss did put on a caveat that if she finds any evidence it will be reported to the police, but as I know I'm innocent I will cross that bridge if it happens.

Thank you for your help ULA

[ULA]

Glad to hear that there has been a postive outcome for you and you have received your pay. Shame about your due holiday pay but so long as you are happy not to pursue then hopefully this is an episode in your life that has completed.

Good luck with university.