[Closed] Employment law re not paying staff properly

Get him to phone [url= http://www.acas.org.uk ]ACAS[/url]

much better for employment advice than CAB, and (dare I say it) STW.

Sounds like unlawful deduction of earnings to me, so breach of contract for starters... he might want to consult an employment lawyer before walking out the door and claiming constructive dismissal.

If they've got cashflow problems, he's unlikely to get much of a payout.

Dave

ACAS?
It is an absolute material breach of contract - would they pay him if he did not work- so he may well have a claim

Go see a solicitor too if not in the union

#Or negotiate the best severanc ehe can form the company and leave

ACAS - didn't think of them.

CAB seemed to think that if the company are struggling financially then there's no point pursuing outstanding salary or fighting a dismissal case. Maybe they're right - if so then it gives employers carte blance to pi55 on their employees and avoid redundancy payouts etc.

Cheers

spacemonkey - Member

CAB seemed to think that if the company are struggling financially then there's no point pursuing outstanding salary or fighting a dismissal case. Maybe they're right

Mmm. Well, there's 2 approaches to that. One is that sometimes, yep, it's pragmatic advice, the company can't give them money if there is none. If they genuinely can't pay their wages then they can't pay a severance payment etc, which can lead to pressures to manage people out which it sounds like is happening.

The other approach is that there's a difference between can't, and don't want to, and personally I wouldn't assume it's can't.

Direct Gov is always helpful for quick reference.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/EmploymentContractsAndConditions/DG_10027521

If the company are on the way out get another job asap and just leave no notice, if he wants to stay get in touch with a good experienced employment lawyer and listen to what they say (contrary to popular opinion they can be very usefull,helpfull and down to earth)

good luck

The CAB advice may well be practical. Withholding wages is illegal, but that usually means it takes some fairly extreme reason for an employer to start doing it. The writing is probably on the wall for the company. I'd guess it is waiting for someone to pull the trigger. If the company does go under without being able to pay redundancy then the insolvency service will pay you something but its not a huge amount.

if so then it gives employers carte blance to pi55 on their employees and avoid redundancy payouts etc.

The gov will cough up the basic redundancy payment if the firm goes under and there's no money in the pot

Jota they pay a maximum amount per week though which is currently 430 iirc.

OP 2 things

1 speak to an employment lawyer
2 if he's management try and get the directors to take some proper restructuring advice. It might just be possible to salvage something if someone acts quickly.

I would add no point going for an award if company has no cash to pay it.

It is just possible that someone with the right skills and experience could help resolve the cash issues. but experience tells me too often no one asks until its too late!

I've forwarded him your comments, so cheers for your time.

He's already a Director (maybe in title only?) and there's no chance of restructuring. I know the company well and they just won't follow that through.

Hopefully he'll get some joy from ACAS, DG and some kind of lawyer.

Cheers

I had exactly the same experience as the OP's mate around 8 years ago. Company struggling, salary reduced and paid less frequently, always with the promise of "next month it'll be sorted out and paid up".

Didn't happen. Stuck it out for 4 months, but in the end had to leave and get another job because I couldn't pay the mortgage. Used ACAS (no power) and filed, and won, a constructive dismissal claim. Company had ceased trading by this point, so all I got was a few hundred quid from the Redundancy Payments service, rather than the 11 grand of salary I was actually owed. The stress and hassle of the constructive dismissal claim wasn't worth the money I received.

My advice would be to get out this afternoon, chalk it up to a bad experience, and move on before they lose any more money.

My advice would be to get out this afternoon, chalk it up to a bad experience, and move on before they lose any more money.

No point unless you have something else to go to, you're not losing money, just not getting what you should.
The OPs mate needs to start job hunting with a passion

I was quite clearly losing money. Primarily £100 a week for petrol to commute to work. £25 a week for lunch at work.

All whilst not being paid.

But the OPs said he was getting 50% salary so not really sure what relevance the particulars of your case are if you're using it as a basis to suggest he gets out now.

No doubt extremely upsetting having your salary halved but in most cases that's still going to be more than JSA
so unless he can afford an even bigger cut, it may be wise to consider hanging on until he has something else to go to.

He's been looking at jobs for a few weeks and really stepped up his efforts this month. There's every chance he'll move on in Oct if nothing changes even if he has nothing to go to. I think he can afford to do that but probably not for longer than a couple of months. And we all know how hard it can be to get another job right now.

I forgot to mention there's a load of bad-mouthing (of him) going on behind scenes by the other Directors too. I only know this because our networks overlap and already people are telling me (and him) the stuff they've heard. All very wrong.