Overpaid in Work?

[ThatGuy]

As a 3rd level student I work part time, and usually come out with about €500 or €600 a month. This morning I checked my bank balance and noticed that I was paid a whopping €3862.

Not being a thief I rang up work this afternoon and explained the situation to them and my proper pay will replace that sum within a day or two. I wouldn't not say anything as that would be the equivelant of taking money from the till in my opinion and it is dishonest.

As a matter of interest, legally would it count as theft if I didn't report it and spent the money, and in those situations do you have to co-operate with your employer and give the money back? I realise the obvious impications that it would have in you staying in the job etc. Not that I did that or would keep the money, I'm just curious.

[Troy.McClure]

I dont think that you would be arrested for being a thief for not reporting it but I think that you do have to give it back alright (I know that my contract says I do anyway).

[sligoman]

Not being a thief I rang up work this afternoon and explained the situation to them and my proper pay will replace that sum within a day or two.

Two words, you fool!.

[Neish]

I hope they give you a bonus for being honest at least €100. They could of been down over €3000 if you hadn't reported it

[hamish]

As a 3rd level student I work part time, and usually come out with about €500 or €600 a month. This morning I checked my bank balance and noticed that I was paid a whopping €3862.

Not being a thief I rang up work this afternoon and explained the situation to them and my proper pay will replace that sum within a day or two. I wouldn't not say anything as that would be the equivelant of taking money from the till in my opinion and it is dishonest.

As a matter of interest, legally would it count as theft if I didn't report it and spent the money, and in those situations do you have to co-operate with your employer and give the money back? I realise the obvious impications that it would have in you staying in the job etc. Not that I did that or would keep the money, I'm just curious.

Fair play to you ThatGuy - there are so many nowadays in the "me first" , greedy society we live in that would have said "thanks very much" and pocketed the dough. Same thing has happened to me in shops etc where an assistant would give you the change of a tenner instead of a fiver. In any case, even a fairly slow guy like me would know that when the till is checked at the end of the day that shop assistant would be in trouble and might even lose her job.
I'm not saying that people should get away with sloppiness on the job but fcuk it, everyone can slip up now and again.
Thank Heavens there are people like you around still - this country was never as bad as now, being permeated by the "nudge, nudge", "wink, wink", "tip the nose" mentality. Too many wide boys and girls around.
When I was in secondary school, whenever it had an away match, if every pupil didn't come back with at least 40 quids worth of nicked stuff from shops they were a failure. That atitude always disgusted me. Totally amoral.

And, son't mind sligoman, he's only winding you up. I know him well enough by now to know that he would have done the same as you.

[sligoman]

And, son't mind sligoman, he's only winding you up. I know him well enough by now to know that he would have done the same as you.

Clearly you don't know me at all, cos if you did, you'd know I'd have kept it and not said a word to them.

[hamish]

Clearly you don't know me at all, cos if you did, you'd know I'd have kept it and not said a word to them:

Ah now, sligoman, don't leave yourself open to idefinite slagging. You know we don't want to do that, don't ya??

Sly-go Rovers......eh??

[sligoman]

Ah now, sligoman, don't leave yourself open to idefinite slagging. You know we don't want to do that, don't ya??

Sly-go Rovers......eh??

Yeah, sly like a fox.....

[Gareth]

Happened my friend, only he got paid 70,000 too much or possibly 40,000. He had to report it as it is paramount to theft if you don't. However there is something in the law about if you have it for a certain period of time, you might have a claim on it??? Or maybe not

[sligoman]

However there is something in the law about if you have it for a certain period of time, you might have a claim on it??? Or maybe not

Possession is nine-tenth's of the law after all.

[Raheny Red]

TBH I would have kept it!

We are $h€l$

[hamish]

Ah Jayus, you lot are depressing me FFS.

Look, if you get money you're not entitled to, law or no law, you give it back.

Comprende??

What happened to morality*** or doing the right thing???

This country'd going to the dogs. In my day we never took anything we..............rant continued on page 94.

***Now if you'll excuse me I'm popping over to tottywatch.LOL

[Pat O' Banton]

On the legal side, I remember it happened at a place I worked in (no where near the same amounts) and as far as I can recall all the company could do was ask for it back, but in no way could force the people to give it back.

Fortunately I was not put in that position at the time (I probably would have spend it well before even knowing about it and thought that the pints in norf laandaaaaan had just got cheaper!) I honestly don't know what I'd do if I thought that the company was a bad employer who were promoting incompetently, being nepotistic and forcing some to work like dogs and letting favorites away with sheer idleness I would probably keep it, if I and others were treated well by an employer then I probably would give it back.

A different example of this was, I was in a pub in Dublin city centre in '98 on the opening day of the Tour d'France, got a couple of drinks for meself and Mrs O' B and found myself being charged an extrotionate amount, as I worked was the rest of the pub - it was full of tourist for the race. However I handed over a tenner and got change of a twenty, normally I would give this back but on this occasion I thought feck it and kept the cash.

[Peadar]

For someone who has their whole working life ahead of them, your honesty should stand to you. Your company would eventually discover that you were overpaid and it would reflect badly on you that you hadn't reported it. From their perspective though, they should reward your honesty.

I was working abroad about 6 years ago and used to be on call from 1800 until 2300 each evening, every other week. The idea was that I'd get paid the on-call rate for every hour I was in the office. When I finished the contract after 6 months they asked why I had claimed 5 hours on-call time every night while I was out there. The truth was, I hadn't. They had made a mistake and paid me the full amount. There was no way of refunding it though because they couldn't work out how much I should actually have been paid.

Before they realised that they were at fault, they were devising a plan to extract a certain sum from my wages every week until the full amount was repaid. I understand that's their legal entitlement so long as you agree to it. If you don't agree to it, you may find your desk cleared out on you.

[Macy]

Happened to me, and I genuinely didn't notice for a couple of weeks (I was away). I was getting an acting up allowance, and then got a promotion but they never took off the allowance. I notified them of it.

In here you can arrange to pay it back over whatever time frame suits you - think I paid it back over a couple of months. Used to work in Payroll and the worst were the big earners - they wanted overpayments deducted over 2 years and stuff like that (not that I ever made mistakes obviously).

[pete]

Obviously you could have kept it but they would notice eventually & while they couldn't force you to return would probably then look at way to sack you & refuse you a reference.