Now a threat of redundancy

Avenger2

I posted on this site last week about not having a contract of employment, I started with the company in Sept, with the following package

1. Company car or car allowance
2. £40k plus salary
3. Bacs payment of salary at the end of each month

I didn't get a written job offer, no car or car allowance, they dropped my salary by £3k because they said they couldn't afford it although it was agreed in my interview along with everything else, I haven't had a salary paid in on time since I started, it has been paid in a mixture of cheques and cash, I requested all of my months salary this month to be paid cash so I could pay in to the bank to clear mortgage payments etc, when I received it it was £500 short, his statement was "shes done the money now I will have to pay it you on Monday",
I was also told on Friday that they may have to let me go at the end of the month as they had lost a job and wouldn't be able to keep me on, I have been in work today and still not received the outstanding £500, without kicking off big time in the office not sure which way to go as I don't have a contract of employment,
I haven't sat back over the last few weeks and have applied to other companies for a job of which I am hopeful, but I'm unsure how to handle this particular situation.

libbyjade

Hi Avenger2,

Put it in writing to your company that you are not happy with the situation and outline in the letter everything that you are not happy about. You can call it a 'letter of grievance' if you want it to be a formal complaint.

Regarding the money they owe you, you can give them a timescale (whatever you feel is reasonable) to pay you the money. If they don't, then you can look to claim unlawful deduction of wages at an ET (employment tribunal)

you need to do this in writing so you've proof that you've tried to resolve it with them.

It sounds like the company are a bit of unscrupulous, so you need to be mindful that taking this approach (which is the right one given what they're doing) they may let you go and because you have not got 12 months service, you cannot claim unfair dismissal. However, you will still be able to claim everything they owe you.

Mischa

The law states that an employer must supply an employee with a terms of employment letter at the very least. it sounds as though you have had nothing in writing at all, which is in breach of employment law. You muts evidence everything in writing, keep a diary of dates, times and occurences regarding pay/discipline/redundacy etc, print off all emails they send to you (and you send to them) regarding this and seek legal advice, because they are operationg unlawfully. Granted, you should not have worked at all without receiving some sort of formal employment terms/job offer letter or similar, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Please do seek legal advice, it'll be money well spent, and should compel the company to pay for your salaray, provided that is, you have proof of their initial employment offer in writing/email etc, or something signed by them or on their headed paper? If not, it's you word against theirs, and that may result in them getting off due to the current financial climate. best of luck! :-)

Avenger2

Thank you both for your time, it is a differcult choice to make at the moment, he has promised the rest of my salary tomorrow morning, if I get it I don't know whether to cut and run, I don't want to end up staying another month and be chasing money at the end of Feb,
I have got a number of interviews already lined up, do you think it could work against me in the future if I do end up at a tribunal?
I wouldn't want to be seen as a militant employee!

libbyjade

No you shouldn't suffer a detriment for making a claim to a tribunal.

I'm not sure any potential employers would ever find out anyway unless you told them. If you did got to an ET and your previous employer told them, you maybe able to take action against them but you may want to get legal advice if indeed this happened.

If you follow my advice and they still don't pay you, contact acas www.acas.org.uk - 08457 47 47 47 and mention that you would like to consider pre-claim concilliation. It's less formal way of resolving disputes without the need to go to court.

Alternatively take a look at this leaflet first.

http://www.acas.org.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=1069&p=0

hope this helps - good luck!