Shift allowance underpayment

[mike73uk]

Hi all,

So this is my first advice post. I hope I'm in the right section.

Basically I should be getting paid 17.5% shift pay allowance. This is a static figure as I don't get any shift allowance on overtime. So I thought for once that I'd check that the figure on my payslip was actually 17.5%. It wasn't, it was about 16% and looking back it has been wrong for many years. I have been doing this job for 15 years. I found an old pay slip from 2006 and it was the same - underpaid on shift allowance.

So I contact my payroll department who said oh yes, you're right. We'll back date it. But the company I work for (large global company) took over my old company in 2010. The new company is saying they only have paye slips going back to when they took over in 2010 and so can only back date it to then.

What I am wondering is, should they not have pay slips for 6/7 years? I thought they should have records for that long. Also do they not have any liability for what happened before 2010 with the underpayments or can they say that was my previous employer and therefore not their responsibility? I thought when a company took over another one and their staff that there was liability on all the staff contracts - TUPE?

Any advice on this would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Mike

[leclerc]

Re: Shift allowance underpayment

Mike, they are right, in that they can only pay you correctly back to the point in which you were employed by them. I'll give you an example, if you work for a cleaning company in a hospital and they change every 5 years from company A to company B and then to Company C, although your job may not have changed, the company you work for would have done and so if Company C are aware that they underpaid you then they can only repay you back to the point in which they were you employer. They have no liability going backwards, however it might be worth you asking for the TUPE'd agreement that they received for you in 2010 which should have clearly stated 17.5% increment. Are you the only person affected? Does their error have any knock on effects, ie working tax credit

[mike73uk]

Re: Shift allowance underpayment

Thanks for the reply.

There are four of us who work the shifts and it is the same for all four of us. I'm not sure of a knock on effect of working tac credit. I presume any underpayment will be paid back as a lump sum, its not that huge at the moment, its only about £500. If they go further back than 2010 then it will be more accordingly.
I'm sure the TUPE'd agreement would state that we get 17.5 % payroll are quite aware that this is what we should be getting. For some reason the mistake of the previous company has been carried on by the new employer.
Should I just accept upto 2010 then or is there anything I can do with the TUPE'd agreement stating 17.5%?
Thanks
Mike