help needed regarding money owed to ex employer!
Discussion
Hi Guys,
need some proper advice from someone who knows about these things. Here's the basics of it.
Handed my notice in at my old company beginning of December, After working 3 weeks of my 4 weeks notice, it was xmas, so my supervisor told me not to worry about coming in for my last week as it was really quiet.
Anyway, had a nice week off and started my new job in Jan. I receive a letter mid january asking me for payment of a few hundred quid for un authorised sick leave for the week i had off. They paid me before i had that week off and now are demanding the money back as i wasn't in.
Now as my supervisor verbally said don't bother coming in, i know i can't use this as an excuse, because really he was just doing me a favour and it wasn't official or anything.
I ignored the first letter, and a second one came, ignored that, and totday have received a third one saying this is the final demand for the money, if i don't pay by the 26th Feb, they will pass it onto a debt collection agency.
They are a large pharmaceuticals company if that makes any difference.
I'm wondering where they stand with this, and what you guys think i should do about it. I know really i should just pay the money, but i don't have it spare at the moment, and feel i shouldn't have to pay it anyway. I gues smy questions are;
Will they actually try and enforce me to pay this? I am going to claim i never received any of the letters, as they didn't send any recorded delivery. So without proof i received the letters, can a debt colleciton agency enforce the debt + their fee on me? (should they go through with it) Have i any way of waiting until if and when they do pass it onto a debt collection company of saying, "hang on a minute, this is the first i've heard of this"?
Or another idea i had, as i still live at home, was to get my mum to ring up and say she just opened the letter, and that he went travelling after he left your company and won't be back until the end of the year.
how do you think they would react to this?
Any help would be much appreciated guys, as obviously i don't want to pay this if there's osme way of getting out of it!
need some proper advice from someone who knows about these things. Here's the basics of it.
Handed my notice in at my old company beginning of December, After working 3 weeks of my 4 weeks notice, it was xmas, so my supervisor told me not to worry about coming in for my last week as it was really quiet.
Anyway, had a nice week off and started my new job in Jan. I receive a letter mid january asking me for payment of a few hundred quid for un authorised sick leave for the week i had off. They paid me before i had that week off and now are demanding the money back as i wasn't in.
Now as my supervisor verbally said don't bother coming in, i know i can't use this as an excuse, because really he was just doing me a favour and it wasn't official or anything.
I ignored the first letter, and a second one came, ignored that, and totday have received a third one saying this is the final demand for the money, if i don't pay by the 26th Feb, they will pass it onto a debt collection agency.
They are a large pharmaceuticals company if that makes any difference.
I'm wondering where they stand with this, and what you guys think i should do about it. I know really i should just pay the money, but i don't have it spare at the moment, and feel i shouldn't have to pay it anyway. I gues smy questions are;
Will they actually try and enforce me to pay this? I am going to claim i never received any of the letters, as they didn't send any recorded delivery. So without proof i received the letters, can a debt colleciton agency enforce the debt + their fee on me? (should they go through with it) Have i any way of waiting until if and when they do pass it onto a debt collection company of saying, "hang on a minute, this is the first i've heard of this"?
Or another idea i had, as i still live at home, was to get my mum to ring up and say she just opened the letter, and that he went travelling after he left your company and won't be back until the end of the year.
how do you think they would react to this?
Any help would be much appreciated guys, as obviously i don't want to pay this if there's osme way of getting out of it!
I think i will write to them then. It is really annoying though, as you say i think it's a case of HR noticing i'm not in, asking, and my superviosr being too scared of getting in trouble to say he told me not to come in. I'll ring them now and tell them i'm going to write them a letter.
Yes i did have a contract, so that may be a problem.
Yes i did have a contract, so that may be a problem.
mrmr96 said:
nick s said:
obviously i don't want to pay this if there's osme way of getting out of it!
Do you consider this to be stealing, or not?nick s said:
I think i will write to them then. It is really annoying though, as you say i think it's a case of HR noticing i'm not in, asking, and my superviosr being too scared of getting in trouble to say he told me not to come in. I'll ring them now and tell them i'm going to write them a letter.
Yes i did have a contract, so that may be a problem.
You may have a contract but part of that is to take directions from your supervisor. Is your supervisor now denying telling you not to come in? Did they attempt to contact you during the week to make it clear they believed you were 'bunking off' without permission?Yes i did have a contract, so that may be a problem.
Are you likely to need them for a reference in the future??
If I was you I would write back saying Mr Supervisor said you could take the week off. If he denies it and HR are back onto you I would pay up as its better to move on and you can't prove what was said. Have you had your final salary payment from them?
If I was you I would write back saying Mr Supervisor said you could take the week off. If he denies it and HR are back onto you I would pay up as its better to move on and you can't prove what was said. Have you had your final salary payment from them?
no they didn't phone me at all, as obviously my boss knew i was going to be off. They paid my final salary, then obviously someone at HR has checked records and seen i didn't clock in those days or whatever, and is no trying to charge me. I know my boss won't have told them he let me have the days of for fear of getting in trouble himself. I think i'll ring and try and explain this tomorrow.
nick s said:
mrmr96 said:
nick s said:
obviously i don't want to pay this if there's osme way of getting out of it!
Do you consider this to be stealing, or not?Why on Earth do you think that it is reasonable to get paid for a week's work that wasn't done?
Of course it is stealing.
Don
--
Is it b
ks stealing! It's not unauthorised sick leave it was authorised (albeit only verbally) leaving early over a quiet week. My old company only asked me to come in for one week of my four week notice period, but they still paid me for the month as per the contract.
I would phone them up and explain the situation exactly. It does sound like your ex superviser has dropped a clanger and perhaps tried to cover his tracks by saying he didn't authorise it. I can undersand that you wouldn't want to really drop him in it if you got on well with him etc, but you definitely shouldn't end up a week out of pocket for it.
I would get on the phone, ideally to someone fairly senior who would be in a position to squash it straight away, and explain the situation as it happened.
ks stealing! It's not unauthorised sick leave it was authorised (albeit only verbally) leaving early over a quiet week. My old company only asked me to come in for one week of my four week notice period, but they still paid me for the month as per the contract.I would phone them up and explain the situation exactly. It does sound like your ex superviser has dropped a clanger and perhaps tried to cover his tracks by saying he didn't authorise it. I can undersand that you wouldn't want to really drop him in it if you got on well with him etc, but you definitely shouldn't end up a week out of pocket for it.
I would get on the phone, ideally to someone fairly senior who would be in a position to squash it straight away, and explain the situation as it happened.
Sounds to me like you were put on gardening leave for the last week of your notice. You agreed this with your supervisor and remained available for work if required that week (didn't you?! 
)
Explain this to HR and that should be the end of it.
Definitely not stealing and definitely no need to pay them back, especially as they didn't contact you that week and ask you to come in.
)Explain this to HR and that should be the end of it.
Definitely not stealing and definitely no need to pay them back, especially as they didn't contact you that week and ask you to come in.
similar to me...
I was 'on gardening leave' but available to work from sept 08 to Dec 08.... I could go in if I wanted to or I could enjoy the 3 months off... Boss said initially that if I wanted to come in I was to be escorted at all times and not allowed near my pc to remove personal emails, etc...
Did get asked to come in by old boss a few days later to help out (hand over my passwords) so he could do the software release using my logons (I was the sole release officer in the team)... Damn he should have thought about choosing me for redundancy a little better eh...
I declined and he said he would write it up in my reference, I then pointed out that contractors cant write references and using my logons was against the code of practice...
They fked up the release big time and lost a bit of money (£XXXXXs) but due to them being chums with the project manager, they blamed me and swept that under the rug...
I enjoyed sitting in the pub hearing that nugget of info...
I was 'on gardening leave' but available to work from sept 08 to Dec 08.... I could go in if I wanted to or I could enjoy the 3 months off... Boss said initially that if I wanted to come in I was to be escorted at all times and not allowed near my pc to remove personal emails, etc...
Did get asked to come in by old boss a few days later to help out (hand over my passwords) so he could do the software release using my logons (I was the sole release officer in the team)... Damn he should have thought about choosing me for redundancy a little better eh...
I declined and he said he would write it up in my reference, I then pointed out that contractors cant write references and using my logons was against the code of practice...
They f
ked up the release big time and lost a bit of money (£XXXXXs) but due to them being chums with the project manager, they blamed me and swept that under the rug...I enjoyed sitting in the pub hearing that nugget of info...
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