Can Anyone please help- can this company do this??

catie2284

My boyfriend works as a car salesman for a very large and very reputable new and used car company in the UK. He is supposed to be on a basic wage of 12,000 (after tax per month, its around £800) and sells on average 16 cars per month and can earn up to 14% commision rates. He works on average 80 hours per week (he is rota'd in for 65 hours and had to sign a form to relase him from the standard 48 hour working week)

This month, however, he has only been paid £446 after tax. His work are trying to say that this is to do with "fines" however surely this isn't legal. It would only be 6000 per year (not what he signed up for!!!!) or if you work it out hourly £1.39 per hour! These are both way below minimum wage as well as the wage he is contracted for.
Can they do this? Surely they have to give him at least his basic wage or even minimum wage as stated by the government!

If anyone has any advice, please help, this is getting ridiculous- he works so hard for pittance!

polythenegirl

It depends what the "fines" are - Are you 100% sure that its the company who have taken teh money from him and its not a courrt order? I know if Council Tax is unpaid they have every right to take it from your salary via your employer.

catie2284

They aren't court order fines, they are fines in terms of work such as filing papers an hour late!

Note- these hour late papers are a result of the company massively overworking him and making him see customers rather than doing his admin-- not down to his organisation

TwistedPsycho

If he signed to agree to it in his contract then I think they can; likewise if they ask and he agrees to it on a one off basis.

I think the Employment, Jobseeking & training board would be more appropriate for this question, which is the sub-forum immediately below this one

tomla

The questions that you need to ask are:

Are these fines part of his contract?

Was he made aware of the fine amounts before he started working that month?

Is each fine detailed to show how much and exactly when?

Has he approached his manager with his concerns about the fines?

To avoid this happening again next month has he spoken to his manager about how he can have time to do the paperwork to avoid the fines?

Be positive about this, it is a terrible practice but you need to know the answers to the questions above to tackle it. Keep smiling.

DermotFlanigan

That sounds like a lot of work for a really poor wage packet. I would start looking for something better personally.

birkee

Surely, only a court can levy 'fines'. Surely that's the wrong word in these circumstances.

As financial penalties, they sound extremely sus. I would have thought they could only recover financial losses. i.e. the till being short, or something like that. (I KNOW.....car showrooms don't HAVE tills. It's metaphoric.)