Wages with Bank Holidays

mrbossmanwex

Hi everyone,
I'm new so apologies if this has already been discussed.
We pay our staff on Mondays - this year due to the bank holidays when we went to pay the wages the bank wouldn't allow the transfers to be made until Thursday.

Have we done something wrong here - just pre-empting any complaints that may come when we open up on Monday!

The contracts say they get paid on Mondays - my interpretation of that is that we will do the transfer on a Monday, regardless of pre/post cut off time, and when it reaches their bank accounts is out of our control?

Anyone else have this issue this year?
Any advice?

D0NNELLY

mrbossmanwex wrote: »

Hi everyone,
I'm new so apologies if this has already been discussed.
We pay our staff on Mondays - this year due to the bank holidays when we went to pay the wages the bank wouldn't allow the transfers to be made until Thursday.

Have we done something wrong here - just pre-empting any complaints that may come when we open up on Monday!

The contracts say they get paid on Mondays - my interpretation of that is that we will do the transfer on a Monday, regardless of pre/post cut off time, and when it reaches their bank accounts is out of our control?

Anyone else have this issue this year?
Any advice?

We processed the transfers early.

mrbossmanwex

Do you do that every year? Are we obliged to do this?
Our staff get paid mon-fri on the following monday (no week in hand) so I hate doing the transfer before the hours have been carried out.

D0NNELLY

mrbossmanwex wrote: »

Do you do that every year? Are we obliged to do this?
Our staff get paid mon-fri on the following monday (no week in hand) so I hate doing the transfer before the hours have been carried out.

Only on the years that it's affected. If you have reason to be wary of paying prior to hours bring worked, of course you were right to do as you did. We don't. So isn't an issue for us..

Guffy

They should have their money by monday tbh, you should of put it through for today.

Just explain you messed up, don't try and hide behind a processessing theory and apologise. There's not much that can be done now bar paying them in cash so hopefully they will just accept the apology without feeling to discruntled as they will be paid the following day, i assume

Water John

They are a number of Bank Holidays in the year. You must ensure the money is in their account by Monday. Thus those weeks you must do the wages early, as on Friday. Easter Week that becomes Thursday, I think.
It's not their problem, it's yours.

BTW workers before were often paid on Thursday for the week. This, even that they had not yet worked Friday or possibly the half day Sat.
Are we really going backways.

meeeeh

Do you have online banking? I find it very strange that any bank would not allow online payments till Thursday? Anyway I doubt that kind of delay is illegal but there might be some very broke people after the holidays and I would explain situation and offer to pay those who want to by a chq. They won't get their money any sooner but at least you create the impression that you care.

GerardKeating

mrbossmanwex wrote: »

Do you do that every year? Are we obliged to do this?
Our staff get paid mon-fri on the following monday (no week in hand) so I hate doing the transfer before the hours have been carried out.

Would they have actually been working on the Bank Holiday, otherwise this should not be an issue.

It would be "normal" to get paid early at Christmas, to avoid delays due to the triple Bank Holiday. You will have this issue again next year, what ever you decide, it would be best to inform the staff will in advance, to avoid a nasty post xmas "surprise" for them.

mrbossmanwex

I was surprised too! I'm with Bank of Ireland and when I tried to process mon / tues / wed the message came up that 'this is not a working day' and would only allow the transfer for the Thursday.

Thanks for the feedback - my staff can be a bit demanding for silly reasons so it's hard to be able to tell when they're in the wrong or I am! Appreciate the input!

Water John

I know personally, i was a bit easy going on such things happening myself, but the vast majority of workers really get miffed at it happening.
You have contracted to have them paid by Monday for work done, it's only fair. Some people have very tight circumstances.

Tippex

mrbossmanwex wrote: »

I was surprised too! I'm with Bank of Ireland and when I tried to process mon / tues / wed the message came up that 'this is not a working day' and would only allow the transfer for the Thursday.

Thanks for the feedback - my staff can be a bit demanding for silly reasons so it's hard to be able to tell when they're in the wrong or I am! Appreciate the input!

My expectation would be that if it is in their contract that they be paid on a Monday that they receive their wages on the Monday not that it gets transferred from the employers account on the Monday. It is your responsibility to ensure that the employees receive their wages as per the contract you will have issued them.
Bank holidays are not a new occurance and should have been thought of before writing this into a contract.
I am assuming you are getting some flack now over not being able to pay them on the agreed day and would this mean that you will have missed 2 weeks payments in a row?

meeeeh

Tippex wrote: »

My expectation would be that if it is in their contract that they be paid on a Monday that they receive their wages on the Monday not that it gets transferred from the employers account on the Monday. It is your responsibility to ensure that the employees receive their wages as per the contract you will have issued them.
Bank holidays are not a new occurance and should have been thought of before writing this into a contract.
I am assuming you are getting some flack now over not being able to pay them on the agreed day and would this mean that you will have missed 2 weeks payments in a row?

Banks take different amount of time to process things. We pay on Thursdays, those who are with aib will get the money then, those with boi will get it a day later into their account. If they want the money on Thursday then they can change their account to AIB.

ger664

Pay them by cheque on a Monday.

Tippex

meeeeh wrote: »

Banks take different amount of time to process things. We pay on Thursdays, those who are with aib will get the money then, those with boi will get it a day later into their account. If they want the money on Thursday then they can change their account to AIB.

Yes you are right they do but I would always have the money processed at least a day or two prior to the wages being due.
We bank with AIB but my personal account is PTSB and it is always in on the day that it is meant to be and none of the staff have had a problem and they bank with different banks to the company account (Touch wood I know I should never say never)

Hollister11

In this situation I think you should withdraw cash, and go out of your way to meet them and pay them.

Let them know your mistake, and they should appreciate the effort you have gone to, in order to make sure they are not left unpaid.

meeeeh

Tippex wrote: »

Yes you are right they do but I would always have the money processed at least a day or two prior to the wages being due.
We bank with AIB but my personal account is PTSB and it is always in on the day that it is meant to be and none of the staff have had a problem and they bank with different banks to the company account (Touch wood I know I should never say never)

We pay on Thursdays for w/e on Wednesday. While I don't mind estimating things every so often, I have no intention of processing working week before it ends so those with different bank can get pay on the same day. Besides our actual pay date is Friday but I think everyone forgot that or doesn't even know in case of newer employees after processing things on Thursdays for years.

Mrs OBumble

mrbossmanwex wrote: »

I was surprised too! I'm with Bank of Ireland and when I tried to process mon / tues / wed the message came up that 'this is not a working day' and would only allow the transfer for the Thursday.

Thanks for the feedback - my staff can be a bit demanding for silly reasons so it's hard to be able to tell when they're in the wrong or I am! Appreciate the input!

Oh come on, its hard to believe that someone who runs a business with staff didn't know that banks don't process on bank holidays!

Get your calendar out now and plan for all 5òther weeks you'll have to transfer early ....

dudara

mrbossmanwex wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback - my staff can be a bit demanding for silly reasons so it's hard to be able to tell when they're in the wrong or I am! Appreciate the input!

To be frank, I'm beginning to see why they can be "demanding for silly reasons". Their contracts say that they get paid on Monday. I would interpret this to mean that they receive their wages on Monday. To me it does not mean that you transfer the funds on Monday, as it is very well known that funds transfer can take a few days.

These are your employees, who depend on their wages to pay mortgages, loans, feed their families. Be responsible & organised when it comes to paying their wages.

mrawkward

The OPs user name probably sums up the attitude that brought him to this point, pretty neatly.