Termination of employment
April 27, 2022 6:31 AM Subscribe
Is it worth pursuing pay?
I gave my manager a month’s notice. They said they would need to work out my annual leave and final leaving date. They got back to me and said I had 2 days of annual leave left, so I could either take both bank holidays off or take one bank holiday and be off on another day. I decided to use one bank holiday and then be off on my final day of employment. They asked me to work my full hours on one day but not input this shift on the system and they would input the hours of my final day when I had left the employment. When I inputted my second to last shift I noticed that I only had 5 hours left to work in order to reach my total hours for that week. My manager was on annual leave that day so I couldn’t contact her about it at the time.
She emailed me at home and said she had inputted my final shift (hours I had worked another day - I had worked 7.5 hrs on that day). I noticed that she had inputted 5 hours instead of 7.5 hrs. She said there was now no time owing or time owed. But there is, I have worked over 2 hrs without being paid. My employment is now terminated there. Is it worth pursuing the pay for those 2 hrs? I feel this is a low blow when I felt like I had left on good terms.
I gave my manager a month’s notice. They said they would need to work out my annual leave and final leaving date. They got back to me and said I had 2 days of annual leave left, so I could either take both bank holidays off or take one bank holiday and be off on another day. I decided to use one bank holiday and then be off on my final day of employment. They asked me to work my full hours on one day but not input this shift on the system and they would input the hours of my final day when I had left the employment. When I inputted my second to last shift I noticed that I only had 5 hours left to work in order to reach my total hours for that week. My manager was on annual leave that day so I couldn’t contact her about it at the time.
She emailed me at home and said she had inputted my final shift (hours I had worked another day - I had worked 7.5 hrs on that day). I noticed that she had inputted 5 hours instead of 7.5 hrs. She said there was now no time owing or time owed. But there is, I have worked over 2 hrs without being paid. My employment is now terminated there. Is it worth pursuing the pay for those 2 hrs? I feel this is a low blow when I felt like I had left on good terms.
Best answer: Is it worth pursuing to the extent that you send an email to your manager saying 'actually, you've left me two hours under, and here's all my math explaining why'? Sure -- though if you didn't leave for a new job and might need a reference from the manager that might not be true.
Is it worth filing some kind of formal complain regarding wage theft with whatever government agency handles those sorts of things where you are? Probably not. You'll likely spend more than the two hours just properly documenting the complaint to file it.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:35 AM on April 27, 2022 [8 favorites]
Is it worth filing some kind of formal complain regarding wage theft with whatever government agency handles those sorts of things where you are? Probably not. You'll likely spend more than the two hours just properly documenting the complaint to file it.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:35 AM on April 27, 2022 [8 favorites]
Best answer: She said there was now no time owing or time owed.
Had you told her about the additional time when she said this? If not, this seems like a simple misunderstanding that could be solved by an email.
But if you told her about the additional two hours and she doesn't believe you, it may not be worth pursuing. You could try going above her head in that case, and they may give you the additional money just because it's easier than arguing. But you'd also have to consider whether you may need a reference from her at some point.
posted by FencingGal at 6:54 AM on April 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
Had you told her about the additional time when she said this? If not, this seems like a simple misunderstanding that could be solved by an email.
But if you told her about the additional two hours and she doesn't believe you, it may not be worth pursuing. You could try going above her head in that case, and they may give you the additional money just because it's easier than arguing. But you'd also have to consider whether you may need a reference from her at some point.
posted by FencingGal at 6:54 AM on April 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
I agree with others that if a polite email doesn't fix the problem, a good reference is likely worth more than the couple hours' pay.
posted by rawralphadawg at 7:37 AM on April 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by rawralphadawg at 7:37 AM on April 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
For two weeks' missing pay, I'd definitely chase it hard. For two days' pay - probably. Two hours? Nah.
posted by rd45 at 9:42 AM on April 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by rd45 at 9:42 AM on April 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
Best answer: If this is the NHS job you've asked about previously, yes, take that straight to HR and they can fix it, no problems. It's not coming out of the pocket of anyone there, you've done the work, the HR systems are big and thorough and can easily work through it, and frankly, any effort your ex-manager has to go through to sort this out is something they've brought on themself.
posted by ambrosen at 9:56 AM on April 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by ambrosen at 9:56 AM on April 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
Best answer: I'd summarize it all in a super-friendly, super-professional email and follow up that way. From experience working in payroll, it's easy to make minor errors like this and possibly that is what happened here. I would definitely follow-up and approach it with an attitude of solving a math problem with your supervisor, with a dash of 'I could be wrong, but..'
posted by dngrangl at 2:42 PM on April 27, 2022
posted by dngrangl at 2:42 PM on April 27, 2022
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posted by mskyle at 6:35 AM on April 27, 2022