Comments invited...

[Timbo1]

My daughter has just told me her Manager opened her payslip before giving it to her - I understand she wanted to see how much tax she is paying.

I am not at all happy about this and feel my daughter should make it known that this behaviour is unacceptable. However, she is only 19 and frightened things will be made difficult for her if she says anything.

What would you do?

 

[Timbo1]

Sorry, just realised this should have been in chit chat!

 

[Surfer]

Breach of the Data Protection Act abnd the manager who opened your daughter's wage slip has left herself wide open to dismissal as it is that serious.

I am not sure how your daughter should approach this but maybe if she went directly to this manager and told the manager that the manager has breached the Data Protection Act and it is a serious offence, however your daugther will say nought if the manager does not open her pay slip again.

 

[Trevor_374569540]

Hello,

I appreciate that the manager may have to give you the payslip, but according to the law the contents are yours or rather your daughters, therefore offences have been committed, never mind you will do nothing if it doesnt happen again, get her sorted, if she does it once it will happen again, she is a manager, but with this sort of behaviour she is a criminal

 

[DavidKlyne]

Had your daughter questioned the amount of tax she was paying, otherwise its difficult to understand why the manager wanted that information and what use it would have been to them. It would also depend on the status of that manager and whether in the course of there normal work they would have access to that information by other means, ie by signing off a master paysheet. Even if they had the status to have that sort of information its was a bit crass to access in that way without an explanation. At the end of the day you have to be guided by your daughters feelings as she is the one has to deal with the situation at the sharp end. After all at 19 she is no longer a child. Perhaps in the first place you could encourage her to ask why the manager wanted the information, it could be she was trying to help but unless you know the reason its difficult to reach a conclusion.

David

 

[landypete]

IS your daughter in any union ? if so she may be able to take it up with them

 

[Jaydug]

How much tax an individual pays is of concern only to the individual and HM Revenue. The PAYE coding notice says "We will tell your employer what your tax code is but we do not tell them how it is worked out". In your daughter's case, the manager is in the wrong.

 

[Timbo1]

Hi all, thanks for the replies.

Apparently the Manager said she wanted to know if my daughter was paying the same tax as another employee!! hence she took it upon herself to open the payslip.

No, my daughter is not in a union. She is at Uni and just works there at weekends and odd times when she can. The employer is a major chain of coffee shops.

 

[Philspadders]

the manager should NOT have opened the payslip.Was there was a request by your daughter for her to check her tax or pay and if there was then perhaps the manager misunderstood the situation.

Either way the manager was wrong unless your daughter gave permission for the manager to open and inspect the payslip.

However ,if the manager actually prepares the wages and though there was an error then a check could be made,but this could have been made on the pay software,usually Sage.

I would ask your daughter for more details,did she give permission,was she present,had she asked about her tax,was the manager trying to be helpful,or just nosey.

The answers may well determine the next step. If the manager acted improperly then she needs to approach some one higher up the chain and start a grievance procedure against the manager.

 

[Philspadders]

You just pipped me.

If the manager was checking her tax against another employees tax then that is totally unacceptable and possibly illegal under employment law.

Even though she works part time,she has the same rights as a full time employee.

Her income tax is a private matter between her and HMRC and is NOT information a manager or anyone else apart from HMRC and perhaps a wages clerk should have access to.

She needs to find out who her area manager is and approach that person explaining that she feels she has been improperly treated.

The manager must be reprimanded but must not show any animosity to your daughter after.

The managers offence is very serious and could lead to dismissal.

 

[Timbo1]

Just to add insult to injury...

Apparently the payslips are made available to staff on a Friday by means of them being placed in a box. As my daughter doesn't work until Saturday, it transpires the pay slip was opened by the Manager and left open in the box until Saturday!

 

[Philspadders]

this is simply unacceptable.Pay slips should be kept locked away as they contain information that a criminal would be only too happy to get hold of.

The chain must have an HR dept.... she must report this.

 

[LMH]

I can't understand why your daughter's line manager would NEED to open her payslip. I know exactly what salary my staff are on. Any tax queries should be directed to the payroll/wages department.

I would also lodge a grievance against the line manager.

Sounds very fishy to me.

Lisa

 

[cazone]

Hi Timbo, payslips are usually marked PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL, this is for a reason, i.e. the information is private, for the person named on the payslip only. I would advise your daughter to report this manager to an area manager, or someone above her, and if things are made difficult for her, then she should seek help from a solicitor or citizens advice. This kind of bullying in the workplace is not acceptable.

Cheers Roy.

 

[ProfJohnL]

What an absolute diabolical liberty.

Any manager who acts in this way should be severely reprimanded or even summarily dismissed. The reported incident must represent several breeches of accepted employee terms and conditions, and I hope also the company has its own code of practice that outlaw this cavalier behaviour.

As others have quite rightly pointed out, the details of tax and other deductions or credits is a private matter. The manager has no right what so ever to open other peoples pay slips once sealed.

It is up to the individual to decide if their private matters may be viewed by others.

It is perfectly acceptable for a manager to know what their staff's salaries are. That will have been published as part of the job specification, and it may be important so the manager can decide how to deploy staff. But a salary is not the same as Tax or other matters that might modify an employee's net income. These are personal sensitive information and are prime fodder for the Data Protection Act.

The fact the manager left the opened pay slip in public view, is a separate and equally act of gross incompetence, and is clearly in breach of the Data Protection Act and employees human rights

Your daughter should have been given written terms and conditions information that should include both a complaints procedure, and a confidential reporting procedure (Whistle Blowing policy)

This matter falls in to the confidential reporting procedure. You may find references to the companies general terms and condition on their web site.

Seek advice form the Citizens Advice Bureau or a solicitor.

 

[Brummie1]

Your daughter should take this up with the Area Manager. What tax code your daughter is on has nothing to do with her manager. This manager needs slapping down big time.The contents of the payslip have nothing to do with her even if she is reponsible for sending the hours worked to Head Office.

Has your daughter proof that the manager opened her payslip if so she should get the managers head on a platter. If not she should complain in writing to the area manager that her payslip had been opened before she received it. Either way it will make things uncomfortable for the manager as the security of the payslip is her responsibility.

I must admit when I read your post I sat there totaly amazed at the effrontery of the woman. She needs to be slapped down and slapped down hard. I wonder what other irregularities Head Office would discover if they took a long hard look at the running of the branch?

I suppose it is my civil service/public sector upbringing but a manager who did that would, if they managed to keep their rank end up incharge of paperclips at Scappa Flow and their record well marked.

Brummie

 

[Steve L]

I totally agree with the others here. Your daughter's manager had absolutely no right what so ever to open her wage envelope which is her private & confidential information.

Just imagine if there were deductions for attatched county court judgement payments, csa payments or coucil tax arrears payments etc. All of which can be applied to the automated tax deduction system and either payed via tax coding differences or directly applied to the pay slip.

What she should do (depending on the size of the company) is to, speak to HR or the MD and voice complaint. Then if the manager concerned starts kicking off about being reported, she could record conversation via her mobile phone, although this evidence would not be admisable in court, it would clearly vindicate a subsequent further complaint to the MD.

I worked as a shift super visor in a large company and we had a "bully boy" manager who held supervisor's meetings behind locked doors, so that he could insult us and F & curse us without recrimination, or as he thought! I spoke to my MD who had explained what went on. He knew me and also knew that I had been an employer myself, so he asked me to call him on my mobile before going into the next meeting. I did just that, and my phone was on a call to the MD for an hour and a half of not only this manager slagging his supervisors off, but he also graduated to involving the MD in some of his cursings. Needless to say when he came out of the locked room he was met by a red faced MD and the HR management team.

Didn't see him after that, I can't think why!

I would advise your daughter to go to citizens advice where she can be put in touch with an employment law advisor if her initial complaint to HR/MD doesn't get taken seriously.

AS you can see there are plenty of people here who can help with advice and support.

Good luck.

Steve L.

 

[Surfer]

I wasn't aware of the other offence when i originally posted. This manager has committed two very serious offences and if the manager is not dismissed I would be very surprised.

Obviously this manager has done this to other staff perhaps to see if they are getting more than she does or a friend of theirs working at the same place.

If the Data Commissioner is made aware of all this, the company will incur a heavy fine and also a severe reprimand.

I strongly suggest that your daughter speaks to someone higher up the food chain. Ther eis no ways that they woudl even consider dismissing your daughter as the repeercussions on the company would be very severe.

If you want more advcie on this try logging into http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/ where ytou wil get laods of advcie and help.