Wages Missing

nonsie

I was working in a cafe for a few months from Sept '09 until I left in Jan '10. I realised after I left that some of my payslips were missing hours that I had worked. I photocopied those payslips and wrote the hours that I had worked on the back of them and left them into the manager about 2-3weeks after I quit. The manager said that she would pass them on to the owners/accountant. This kind of thing happened all the time there as it was a very badly managed place and had no system for ensuring the hours that people had worked had been taken down correctly.

A few weeks passed and I bumped into another manager and he told me that there was a check waiting for me. I presumed it was the money I was owed. After a week or 2 I went to collect it and realised that it wasn't, it was just the pay for the last couple of days I had worked. I emailed the cafe scans of the payslips and wrote the hours that I had worked and what I was missing. Admittedly I was a bit slow at this whole process but I didn't expect it to be a problem because it seemed to always be happening tthat staff would be short a few hours and it would get ammended. I received no reply to the email so about 2 weeks later I popped into the cafe asking about my money and they told me that they received the email but I needed to email it to the owners/accountant. I don't understand why the manager couldn't have forwarded it on to them.

I finally got around to emailing them, it is 7 months since I worked there, I told you I was a bit slow to getting around to it. They told me that "Unfortunately as you have been gone off our payroll for the last 7 months we can no longer process wages for you. If there were any queries on your wages from your employment you would have to have brought to them our attention when you left ***** as I can no longer process wages once employment has ended."

I have emailed back telling them that I have already given this information to the managers twice already.

Also when I started working there they paid me in cash for about 2 months. I repeatedly asked the managers why I was getting paid in cash and they would just play dumb and not pass my query on to the owners. Eventually I confronted the accountant as the also weren't multiplying my hours by my hourly rate correctly (eg. 4x9=34 instead of 36). They were a bit nervous when I mentioned that and that I needed something signed for Social Welfare and told me not to mention that I was being paid in cash and lie about when I started my employment.

I want the money I'm owed! Do you think I have a chance of getting it back and what are my rights in regards to this?

Clauric

First of all, you are entitled to the pay for the hours that you worked. However, most of the legislation provides that you seek remedy within 6 months, although longer with special circumstances (undefined by law, fairly arbitrary).

I suggest that you communicate with the company only in writing, informing them of the date, and time that you informed them of the mistakes. I would also suggest that you immediately contact both NERA, and the Rights Commissioners, as the statues expire after 6 months.

To be able to prove your case, you would need payslips, records of the shifts on company paper, ideally, and records of the communications between you and your former employer.