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CAN YOU SEND A PAYSLIP BY EMAIL
April 2010
CAN YOU SEND A PAYSLIP BY EMAIL?
One of our subscribers wants to know if it’s legal to send employees their payslips by email. On the face of it there’s nothing to stop them doing this. But are there any hidden dangers lurking behind the scenes?
Getting the payslips out
Section 8 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 deals with pay statements. It states that:
“An employee has the right to be given by his employer, at or before the time at which any payment of wages or salary is made to him, a written itemised pay statement”.
What’s the issue?
As far as employers are concerned, getting the payment details correct is not a problem. But what can be an issue is making sure the pay statement finds it way to the employee on time. With holidays, homeworkers, part-timers, sickness absence, maternity leave, etc, this can often be a difficult task.
Your obligations
It’s your duty to ensure that the employee is given their pay statement in time, i.e. either on or before the day payment is received. Some larger organizations use external payroll companies which send them out in the post. But, like our subscriber, you probably don’t want to be wasting this sort of time and money. So could e-pay statements be your answer instead?
What are they?
These involve putting all the relevant information into an e-mail and sending it to the employee. So, in theory, at the touch of a button, you don’t have to track down each and every one. Nice idea and it’s not actually illegal. But could such a system be storing up problems? We can see a few important issues, so what are they?
Privacy issues
The biggest concern, particularly amongst employees, is confidentiality. As they are entitled to a “written copy” of their pay statement, they must be allowed to print it out. But what if there is only a communal printer. Here there’s a strong risk it will be seen and picked up by someone else before they get to it? It’s also possible that they won’t have access to a printer and you don’t want to go to the expense of getting them one.
Availability of documents
Another problem is where it’s emailed to – not all employees have work addresses. This means that you would have to constantly ensure that your records are up to date, and this would not be easy. Of course, if it does go to an invalid address, then it will be your problem and not theirs.
Can’t accept it
Not only are having the correct contact details a burden, knowing which employee can receive e-pay statements will be too, and this can change daily. For example, they may call in sick on the day the email goes out, or it may not be their day to work anyway. So you will have to make other arrangements in these situations.
Not the soft option
Add those who have come out of the system for other reasons, eg maternity leave, and what looked an easy system at first could become a headache. In our view, whilst these systems may sound good, they are not right for businesses which can’t dictate the time to run them. That said, if you can, it may be an option to consider.
Source: Tips & Advice Personnel March 18 2010
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