Overpayment

[Bakedalasker]

I have a situation where someone has been overpaid and has left the company.

Now this story is that this person went on holiday but did not return to work. For absence of work the company procedure was that he was to keep his manager informed of his situation. He complied with this and a SAR has given him this evidence.

The company within about 2 weeks of his disappearance wrote to him informing that wages were frozen from the date of his return from holidays and he has to a certain date to contact his manager or HR else his contract was terminated.

Well he did not receive this letter until a week after this termination date due to him being away from his home. It was recorder delivered to him but he was not at home to receive it. So upon reading the letter he noticed the termination date had passed so he considered his contract nulled.

Since then they are chasing him for 4 days unpaid leave. His argument his they terminated his contract although he kept to the company rules.

Just to add to the situation his manager did not receive his last correspondance until after the termination date as he was away on leave.

Hope you followed that. Anyone think he has a case?

[Guest]

Re: Overpayment

A case for what?

[Bakedalasker]

Re: Overpayment

He owes them 4 days unpaid leave. When he started his holidays he was minus 4 days into his leave entitlement.

[Guest]

Re: Overpayment

If he owes the money then they can issue a claim against him for it. I am still unsure as to his defence - if he was minus 4 days, then what is his defence?

[Bakedalasker]

Re: Overpayment

His argument is that he intended to return to work but at the time could not due ot personal reasons. He abided by the company policy but they terminated his contract.

He did what they asked but still terminated him.

[Paule]

Re: Overpayment

Unless i'm missing something here he had unautjhorised absence for 2 weeks.
Was there a reason for this, medical grounds, was a sick note produced?
In my company they wouldnt allow me 2 weeks off without any evidence to back the absence up.
If he used more than his holiday entitlement then they have a right to the money back.

Can you clarity what outcome you are looking for? what arer you trying to achieve

[Guest]

Re: Overpayment

Did they over pay him?

If they did then they are entitled to recover the money.

If he can show that he had informed them of his absence, which you state above, then this would appear to be a failure of communication, which should be easy to resolve.

Their temination was premature, based on a lack of information, because the manager he had informed about his absence was not around to pass it on to HR.

That does not mean however, that he was not overpaid, if he was, then he may need to pay it back.

Has he communicated this to the company and if so, what was their response?

[Bakedalasker]

Re: Overpayment

Exactly what I thought.

He has communicated with the company and outlined his case. They have not responded to this but have asked for clarification of compliance of the DPA and still have asked for the overpayment back without mention of his argument.

[Bakedalasker]

Re: Overpayment

Unless i'm missing something here he had unautjhorised absence for 2 weeks.
Was there a reason for this, medical grounds, was a sick note produced?
In my company they wouldnt allow me 2 weeks off without any evidence to back the absence up.
If he used more than his holiday entitlement then they have a right to the money back.

Can you clarity what outcome you are looking for? what arer you trying to achieve

He wants to know if he has a case to defend. That is should he pay back the unpaid leave after following the company procedures.

Was he wrongly dismissed? Going on the story he has told me and looking at his DPA, just not sure if a judge would look at him favourable.

[WendyB]

Re: Overpayment

Depends what it says in his contract of employment, I would have thought.

A similar thing happened to me a few years ago, I was off sick, but got another job and sent in my resignation. They wrote to me later asking for a return of the wages they'd paid which covered the sick period. Monthly salary had been paid the day before I resigned, and as sickness, hours owing, overtime were done in arrears, what they would have done had I have returned to work was deduct and balance it off the next month. Anyway, they requested the repayment, I wrote back to them pointing out that they hadn't allowed for SSP (I had sent in doctors notes). They wrote back again with a new figure, I offered them xx per month for 12 months. Because it quite clearly stated in my contract that any under/overpayments in salaries would be rectified within 12 months.
That was 3 years ago and I haven't heard from them since.

[WendyB]

Re: Overpayment

And TBH, unless his salary was mega-bucks, surely 4 days holiday wouldn't amount to loads of money. Could he offer a token payment per month and hope that sorts it out? Or does he not want to pay it back at all?

But why did he take holiday if he was already minus 4 days leave? Or did the holiday take him into a minus situation? Or am I missing something??