Work Promised but Not Delivered

fiisch

Hi,

Long time lurker but only recent poster! Quick Background: My girlfriend and I moved to Crawley, West Sussex after I began working in insurance. My girlfriend was offered a full-time job on August 8th as a home carer with a new start up business.

I began working and we began renting a room on the understanding of her job. However, her new boss continually postponed her start date, blaming problems with the local council. He fobbed her off until late November, during which time she was complaining unemployment benefit. She then took a casual bar job, getting hours here and there and earning a minimal income, much below the £7 an hour she was promised as a carer.

By January, we were growing very concerned, and after threatening to leave, her new boss offered her a shift a week, carrying out basic tasks (not as a carer) while the business got up and running. Now six months after the job offer, she is still waiting regular employment and has been forced to seek an alternative long-term solution. It has been hugely disruptive to our move and has caused major problems in our life and relationship, as our financial problems grow. During this time, we have also begun renting our own flat, which my wage just about covers.

What are her rights? Would she be able to claim for loss of earnings? She has emails from her boss promising various starts which he has never delivered on, and has never really given her any formal work - paying her cash in hand for the odd shift here and there. In this time, minus the earnings she has managed to gain from other employment, we calculate that she has lost in the region of £4,000. If she has any claim, what should my first action be? Should I write him a Without Prejudice letter, threatening to escalate the situation to the small claims court.

My girlfriend has almost given up on gaining any meaningful employment, and feel her growing career (we're both early 20s) has been severely stunted.

Thanks for the help!

jdturk

fiisch wrote: »

Hi,

Long time lurker but only recent poster! Quick Background: My girlfriend and I moved to Crawley, West Sussex after I began working in insurance. My girlfriend was offered a full-time job on August 8th as a home carer with a new start up business.

I began working and we began renting a room on the understanding of her job. However, her new boss continually postponed her start date, blaming problems with the local council. He fobbed her off until late November, during which time she was complaining unemployment benefit. She then took a casual bar job, getting hours here and there and earning a minimal income, much below the £7 an hour she was promised as a carer.

By January, we were growing very concerned, and after threatening to leave, her new boss offered her a shift a week, carrying out basic tasks (not as a carer) while the business got up and running. Now six months after the job offer, she is still waiting regular employment and has been forced to seek an alternative long-term solution. It has been hugely disruptive to our move and has caused major problems in our life and relationship, as our financial problems grow. During this time, we have also begun renting our own flat, which my wage just about covers.

What are her rights? Would she be able to claim for loss of earnings? She has emails from her boss promising various starts which he has never delivered on, and has never really given her any formal work - paying her cash in hand for the odd shift here and there. In this time, minus the earnings she has managed to gain from other employment, we calculate that she has lost in the region of £4,000. If she has any claim, what should my first action be? Should I write him a Without Prejudice letter, threatening to escalate the situation to the small claims court.

My girlfriend has almost given up on gaining any meaningful employment, and feel her growing career (we're both early 20s) has been severely stunted.

Thanks for the help!

Sounds like a rubbish situation but why why why would you write the letter to your OH's boss?

Emmzi

your g/f needs to have taken reawsonable steps to mitigate her losses.

In this case looking for another job while signing on - wwhich she could then quit when "proper" job started.

Unless you can document this, I'd say no claim.

Also, no contract, no obligations. Does she have a written contract? I'm guessing not. So no evidence of how things were meant to work. Boss could turn around and say "it was only ever casual work" and then she's stuffed.

There are better places to foucs your energies.

(I am an experienced HR manager for the record.)

fiisch

This is why I think I have a case - she does have a written contract dated August 8th offering 40 hours a week. She has also had a job in the interim period behind a bar, so she has attempted to offset the losses, but obviously during a recession getting something else of a similar calibre has been very tricky.

That said, she rejected another similar job offer around the same time. As a qualified carer, and with the emails/contract promising full time work surely I have him over a barrel?

Emmzi

No, you do not.

What happened on 8th August? Did she turn up for work? Did he send her home?

Things change. The time to tackle this was in August. By accepting the situation she has given her tacit approval. Compensation or retainer discussions were due many months ago.

You have no case. And, she could have taken the other job.

What does your gf want to do? It's unusual for you to be pushing this on her behalf?

HO87

Firstly, do not write to the OH's boss. At this stage it is a waste of time.

Secondly, get your gf to get all of the paperwork together and then call ACAS tomorrow and talk the problem through with them. Their advice is good and free. At least then she will know what her rights are. My feeling - but I'm groping in the dark alittle - is that her employment contract has been "frustrated" (to use a legal term) but without a lot more detail I could well be wrong.

As far as ACAS are concerned their helpline can be busy and she'll have to persevere but I can assure you what she'll get is on the money. With all due respect to CAB, if you were thinking of trying them, my personal experience of their employment advice service is that - generally - their advisors are well-meaning but only occasionally well-clued up and (again IMO) they tend to be very cautious in the advice they give. You may also have to wait some time before you get an appointment.

ACAS, by contrast, are at the end of the phone and will tell it like it is.

fiisch

Emmzi - there is no "work" to speak of. She is a home carer, but the business has yet to gain any clients. The problem is, the owner does not seem to be trying very hard to gain clients, and has interests elsewhere. We have discussed this action for a while, but have been continually fobbed off. Had we been told back in August that employment would not commence for 6 months, circumstances would have been very different. However, I have several emails promising forthcoming work within the next few weeks over the last six months - promises which have never materialised. During a recession, can we be blamed for hanging on?

HO87 - excuse my ignorance but who are ACAS? I have had similar experiences with Citizens Advice Bureau, although they can be a good starting point. However, I agree they're very cautious and don't always seem purely interested in helping the client.

I appreciate contracts are worded to cover an employer's bases, with phrases like "your hours may be amended to suit the needs of the business" but 40 hours in six months as opposed to every week is more than a mere amendment! I think in the current climate with the emails I have a small claims court may be sympathetic! So you believe I should not try and wrangle compensation direct from the employer, but go straight for the jugular and go to a small claims court.




Recent examples:

"I guess once we meet with them we will be able to start.It will be in January."

"Also very good news we had our visit from West Sussex and his time we have met all the minimum standards.This means we can start marketing and trade as from January"

HO87

ACAS = Advisory, Conciliation & Arbitration Service. Website Here
Helpline - 08457 474747
Mon-Fri 08.00 - 20.00, Sat 09.00 - 13.00

[Edit] - as far as considering taking action in the small claims court is concerned, any claim will be limited to £5,000. However, aside from the applicablity of any relevant employment legislation, one would have to think about the viability of issuing proceedings against a company that would appear to have little if no business and therefore an empty balance sheet and bank account. A win might be secured but without being able to obtain any damages awarded it could well be a hollow victory. For that reason I continue to recommend that the OP gets his gf to contact ACAS in the first instance.

jdturk

You'll have to goto an employment tribunal I would have thought and proved that your OH was not employed on a self employed basis or a 'work as required' basis.

I kinda think your OH's best bet is to find another job and move on and learn from it.

getmore4less

What was in the contract,, start up they may have missed a few important points need a bit of legal/Acas on this one.

Things that come to mind

Did the contract come into effect if there had never been any work.

Was there any layoff clauses, if work was not avaialble.

If not are wages due.

If there was a layoff clause are any layoff payments due.

You may be outside the claim period since this first came to light in Aug, more than 6 months has passed.

terra_ferma

I find this case really odd, as we are not talking about a highly skilled job where vacancies are few and far between. Your gf is at the beginning of her career, and there are plenty of jobs out there.

For example I run a quick search on the JobCentre Plus website, looking for care jobs in the Crawley area and found plenty of vacancies, many with no experience required.
Sussex is well known for being an area with a high number of older people, so no reason to wait around if she really wanted to work. couldn't she have at least got casual shifts somewhere else while waiting for the job she really wanted?

Unless there is something you have not mentioned, it seems to me that there would have been no reason to wait around so long. But unfortunately we all learn from experience....