A few years ago i worked at a restaurant on a monthly salaried wage, the company i worked for were bought out. Now the new company paid us at a different time of the month than previously from the old company.
So the new company gave us a top up wage to see us through till the next paydate one and a half months away. It was half a months wage.
I left said restaurant but transferred to another restaurant within the same company.
Cue a year down the line and completely forgetting about this top up wage and i handed my notice in to change career, leaving the company and restaurant business behind.
This is when i received a letter stating that two years ago that little half month wage i had been given was due to be paid back as it was only a loan.
Oh sheet! I don't have half a months wage to give them and I'm not sure of the legality of trying to claw back money which i was unsure if it was a loan. (this is a very large company)
So i ignore the letter for a while. Then i get a phone call. I state I'd never agreed to receiving a loan from the company. They said that wasn't an arguement and i still needed to pay it back. So i said i never knew it was a loan. They said i would of received a letter about it so i still needed to pay it back.
I was getting nowhere fighting this way so i went nuclear.
Now a few years ago all salaried employees recieved a letter because there was this hero somewhere in a restaurant who worked 100 hour weeks and worked out he was being paid under minimum wage which is illegal in the UK. So they had to write to everyone to pay them all back, it cost the company millions. And gave them a super bad name. I however never took them up on the letter because although i worked over my contracted hours some weeks i never did that many. So i left it.
So i said ok I'll be happy to pay back this “loan” if you can transfer me to the claims department about working under minimum wage law which i received a letter for a couple of years ago so i can claim and pay it out of that.
They hesitated on the phone i think the guy i was speaking to spoke to his manager and came back with ok we can drop that wage top up and leave you at 0. I said great and hung up.
Never back down against these bastards.