Workers at the Cineworld cinema in Newport say they have been underpaid just before Christmas.
They say their annual leave was not paid because of a payroll mistake, resulting in the loss of more than £200 for some staff members.
CJS News understands the affected employees have been offered advance pay or they can choose to have their missing pay with next month’s salary. But staff say instructions are unclear and they are unsure whether emergency payments will create a large tax bill.
In a statement, Cineworld said: “We can confirm that we experienced a small technical issue with our payroll system which unfortunately affected some members of staff at Cineworld Newport. We immediately notified and apologised to staff for the error and we are fully reimbursing them. Fortunately, this is an isolated incident and we have resolved the issue with our system to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
But one employee, who asked to remain anonymous, says the festive period has become a struggle: “It’s obviously frustrating when you should be paid for annual leave that you’ve taken and you haven’t been paid for it, especially so close to Christmas. You have bills to pay… I need that money.
“Some of my colleagues, they do have children so obviously they have a lot more stress to do with Christmas. When you get to the point where you can’t afford to really buy food for your kids it’s obviously a real big issue.”
