Advice regarding nonpayment of wages

purplecrocus

Hi,
My son has been working for two months and this is the second month his company have failed to pay him. He has been told today that there are some starting forms missing and until these are completed and been sent through the system they are unable to pay him. So he probably won't be paid until the middle of next week.
So he could get to work I have been subbing him for his fuel and other costs.
His car tax is now due, he has his mobile phone bill to pay, and he owes me rent, are they entitled to withhold his money, I can't afford to sub him anymore, so he will get into problems with his mobile contract and not be able to use his car.

Thanks

Mudd14

What forms are they saying are missing?

I would get these completed and ask for payment after this. If no payment is recieved in three days I would put in a grievance stating you believe it is an unlawful deduction of wages.

purplecrocus

Sorry not sure what forms they are asking for. I know he submitted id forms last month. Which was why he wasn't paid then

Simon11

They have his banking details and National Insurance details?

Savvy_Sue

He needs to find out what is still outstanding, and ask whether there is anything he needs to do to progress things.

He could ask for immediate payment of at least some of his wages, or a crisis loan, to be taken out of this wages when they do finally manage to pay him.

purplecrocus

This is an update to my original posting.
My son has been informed that his wages were not paid due to them not receiving copies of his ID. He has been told that until these are received it is illegal for them to pay him any money? Does anyone know if this is true?

The annoying thing is he worked for them for two years and left for a gap of a month then returned to the company so it's not as if he is a stranger to them!

terra_ferma

As far as I know it's illegal to EMPLOY people who are not eligible to work in the UK, and all employers must now check ID.
But this does not mean it's illegal to PAY people!
(I'm not an expert, but at work HR have become much stricter because of new legislation)

It looks like to me that they have made a c0ck up by employing him without checking his ID and they don't want him on payroll until they have got it.
But what they are doing sounds like an unlawful deduction of wages, as someone else mentioned.

see:
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?topicId=1073981874

All employers in the UK have a responsibility to prevent illegal migrant working. You must therefore check the entitlement of everyone you plan to employ to work in the UK.
If you fail to do this, you may be liable to pay a civil penalty. If you knowingly employ an illegal migrant worker, you may face criminal prosecution, which could result in an unlimited fine and/or a maximum two-year prison sentence.

Savvy_Sue

I agree with terra_firma.

Employers are in a difficult position, in that they can't insist on seeing ID for some and not for others. And if we were to re-employ someone I think we would ask to see their ID again - if only because we wouldn't have kept it from the first time, because 'best practice' in data protection means you don't hold information you don't strictly need for longer than necessary.

Asking for an interim payment doesn't seem unreasonable, in that even if they can't employ him they have put themselves under an obligation to pay him. Whether they'll see it that way is another matter.

Is your son clear about what ID he needs, and does he have it? A current UK passport usually does the trick: if he doesn't have one, or it's not current, then his birth certificate, NINo and proof of address should, I think, be enough. But I'm doing that from memory: DS2 needed to get on someone's payroll last year, and that's when we found his passport had expired. I'm not quite sure why an out of date passport isn't adequate for a UK citizen - if an expired passport says "UK citizen" and doesn't say "Not entitled to work in the UK" what's going to change on the new one? But what would I know, I don't work in Immigration or the Passport Office!

terra_ferma

These are the documents that apply to British citizens:

1. A passport showing that the
holder, or a person named in
the passport as the child of the
holder, is a British citizen or a
citizen of the United Kingdom
and Colonies having the right of
abode in the United Kingdom.
8. A full birth certificate issued
in the United Kingdom which
includes the name(s) of at least
one of the holder’s parents, when
produced in combination with
an official document giving the
person’s permanent National
Insurance Number and their
name issued by a Government
agency or a previous employer.
9. A full adoption certificate issued
in the United Kingdom which
includes the name(s) of at least
one of the holder’s adoptive
parents when produced in
combination with an official
document giving the person’s
permanent National Insurance
Number and their name issued
by a Government agency or a
previous employer.

Link to full list is here:
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?topicId=1073981874

Driving licence, CRB checks, NI number etc NOT valid.

SueC_2

purplecrocus wrote: »

This is an update to my original posting.
My son has been informed that his wages were not paid due to them not receiving copies of his ID. He has been told that until these are received it is illegal for them to pay him any money? Does anyone know if this is true?

The annoying thing is he worked for them for two years and left for a gap of a month then returned to the company so it's not as if he is a stranger to them!

I may be over-simplifying things here, but why doesn't he just provide the ID they need?

Does it really matter whether it's illegal, or against company policy, or just petty minded beaurocracy for them to pay him if they haven't received it?

If he provides the ID he will be paid. It seems to me this will be by far the easiest and quickest way to resolve this matter.

DVardysShadow

SueC wrote: »

I may be over-simplifying things here, but why doesn't he just provide the ID they need?

Does it really matter whether it's illegal, or against company policy, or just petty minded beaurocracy for them to pay him if they haven't received it?

If he provides the ID he will be paid. It seems to me this will be by far the easiest and quickest way to resolve this matter.

I think you are oversimplifying.

If there was a genuine problem and the company wanted to pay him, they would have told him as soon as they become aware what he needed to do
so they could pay him.

The oversimplification ignores the apparent lack of desire to pay their employee what they owe him indeed an apparent intent to let him work and not pay him.