From 6 April 2019, new legislation under the Employment Rights Act 1996 will impact employers on how they provide payslips to their workforce. Under the new changes, employers are required to provide itemised payslips to workers under their payroll and not just employees. There are some limited exclusions from the right to receive a payslip such as members of armed forces or merchant seamen and women.
Timekeeping
Employers are required to include the total number of hours worked where pay varies according to the hours worked. For example, workers who are paid by the hour, day rate workers, overtime paid at additional rates, and zero hour workers. If an employee is contracted to 30 hours per week and they work an additional five hours, you would only be required to show the five hours on the payslip since the 30 hours pay would not vary. However, the total hours or a breakdown of hours may be shown if helpful to do so. The payslip must also show which pay period this refers to.
Alternatively, such cases may amount to pay varying due to a departure from the normal working and pay arrangement caused by unpaid leave or statutory sick pay. For example, a salaried employee receives pay in equal monthly instalments decides to take five days unpaid leave and the employer deducts these five days from the employee’s salary. There is no requirement for the employer to show the hours on the payslip since the pay does not vary depending on the hours worked but the pay has varied, due to a departure from normal working and pay arrangements.
Payslip Information
What else must your payslips show?
- the gross amount of wages or salary to be paid
- the net amount of wages or salary to be paid
- the amounts of any variable deductions
- the amounts of any fixed deductions
- a breakdown of how the wages will be paid if more than one payment method is used (e.g. cash and cheque)
Have you checked whether your payslips reflect the new changes? If a worker thinks they have not received a payslip or lacks the information required, they are entitled to bring a claim before the Employment Tribunal and if the tribunal agree, they will be required to make a declaration to this effect. The tribunal may order repayment of unnotified deductions made in the 13 weeks preceding the presentation of the claim, even where the employer was otherwise entitled to make the deductions. This is separate from a claim where a worker has not been paid properly for example, for an unlawful deduction of wages.
If you are still unsure on the new changes and how this affects your organisation, please contact the employment advice line for further guidance.
