Evil manager, no wages and threatened reposession

wallpapermate

hi all
need some good advice...asking on behalf of my mum and dad who live in Wales.

My dad is a chef at a pub and hast been paid since before christmas. He has no employment contract, and is subject to dreadful treatment by the landlord and his mother. Subsequently he is owed somewhere in the region of £3k worths of wages.

Because of this, my parents are now £4k short of the mortgage (which they self certified and are currently paying interest only). They got a phonecall two days before Christmas being threatened with a reposession order.

My dad will have worked for these people for a year in Feb, and working in an HR office i get the impression that he is legally in a better place once he has worked there for a year. He is still going in to work on the basis that if he is bringing them in money he might be in a better position to get his back pay. he is not the only person that is not being paid, and a couple of people have walked already.

There are also other issues. It is in question whether my dad's employer have been paying his tax and NI...also, my dad had an attachement on his earnings which is not being received by the court. He has had no payslips as he is receiving no money, and owing to this my parents have had their last remaning bank account shut (they were only allowed a basic one as they declared themselves bankrupt).

Their financial situation was not great to start with, but my dad's employers' behaviour is nothing short of abhorrent and i dont know how to help them.

Any advice from either a HR/Legal or financial perspective would be gratefully received.

Thanks guys

bryanb

Talk to the lender about the arrears, explain the situation. Hard to advise about the employer.

mountainofdebt

I'm sorry but I think your dad is being taken for a mug if he thinks that by continuing to work for these people that he will be in a better position to get his back pay.

Has he been given any reason for the lack of salary? Usually when salary fails to be paid it means only one thing, that the business is in financial trouble and I think he really needs to sort out another position fast, just in case the pub landlord and his mum decides to do a moonlight flit....and if that happens there will be practically no chance of getting the money owed.

I must admit I thought that if you didn't get paid and continued to work as normal it was considered to be a change in your contract terms and conditions that you had agreed to.

pinkshoes

I agree that your dad is being taken for a mug.

He should write them a letter, sent recorded delivery or given by hand, stating that unless they pay all owed wages by <insert date for 2 weeks time>, then he will be taking them to court for the rest of the wages.

In the mean time, he needs to find himself another job. He should brush up his CV, and apply for anything in the area that's suitable.

I presume as they haven't given him a contract he would only need to give 1 week notice?

wallpapermate

i was kind of of the same opinion that he shouldnt continue to work for free, but i understand the logic also that he is trying to bring them in money so there is more of a chance that he might recoup some of what he is owed. i also agree with the bit about it suggesting the business is in financial trouble, but not so much that they cant afford to fork out for personal luxuries!

in terms of applying for another job, they live in the deepest depths of the welsh valleys and the jobs just arent there, and if they are they're very low paid, and not necessarily secure.

difficult position to be in...it seems like a black and white situation but when you're owed £2500 it's hard to walk away without a fight! he badgers them for it on a near daily basis.

with reference to the tax and attachment, where do they stand if the employer has not paid? surely it is down to the employer as the agreement is with the company to pay the tax on behalf of the employee??

fengirl_2

Yes, its the employer's reposnsibility to pay over the tax and NIC for employees, so HMRC cannot go after your dad for that. Does he have payslips?
The person issuing the attachment would want to know why he had not been paid - am not sure who that comes back to in the end.

mountainofdebt

I understand what you are saying, as I live in the Welsh Valleys and can see from myself that people are cutting back on eating out etc.

The thing is if the business isn't in financial trouble then why would they not pay your dad, apart from the fact that they have someone who is willing to work for nothing and not do anything about it?

Surely a lowly paid, unsecure job is better than working for nothing - he can't be any worse off can he?

I think the best course of action would be to get some legal advice as to whther he can sue for this money through legal means - at the end of the day, its him and your mum that are going to suffer not his employer and he needs to starting getting tough with them......and it sounds as if he is just be fobbed off by talking to them.

sillylittlejill

hi wallpapermate.
I can't offer any advice but I was thinking of becoming a solicitor whilst working at a solicitors practice. Since then, have changed my mind as most of them are miserable! Anyhoo, I have a few textbooks and one of them is employment law if you want me to send you it? It's not getting used for anything and has all the up to date legal mumbo jumbo for you to look through. pm me if you want it otherwise its ebay lol

xxx

RAS

I would suggest that he explains to the landlord that he is about to lose the house as he has mortgage debts totalling more wages, and if that happens he will not be able to work there any longer.

See if that shames the landlord into coughing up.

more_money_for_me

There are a couple of things you need to establish. First is the legal status of the business. Partnerships and sole traders have personal responsibility for the debts of the business, and hence you can persue the owners after they close the business and realise any assets they might have, this means it is probably worth continuing to chase the debt. If the company is LTD the personal responsibility isn't there in the same way and the business can be closed with debts without you having much chance of chasing them further. Second I guess is proof of work done, without a contract has he proof of the work he has done, can another colleague perhaps provide this? Would suggest CAB as a good strarting point.