Not being paid! and having to owe 110 hours back unpaid in the space of 4 weeks

dutbuster

Hi there i have worked in a golf pro shop for the past 10 months now, and as of the beginning of march my employer was told his contract would not be renewed as he was on a three month rolling contract as i am employed by him i to am having to lose my position in the shop!

Now i really could do with some advice and guidance i am only 19 years of age and don't fully know my rights on this situation, myself and my boss have a verbal contract which as per my "job description" says i will work on average of 30 hours per week and any hours not worked shall be banked and any additonal hours work shall be deducted from those outstanding.

As you all know we had so serious snow fall during the months of november and december of which the golf course became closed, and my boss said to me don't come in until further notice he payed my wages for the 30 hours but also banked those 30 hours per week of which i had approx two and a half weeks off during the snow fall which he banked and said i will have to owe back at a later date even thou i was available and willing to attend work and make a effort to try and get the even thou i live 22.1miles away.

so i have mentioned this to him and he says it is unacceptable of me to do this and my two options are to work the outstanding hours and be done with it or hand in my keys he will invoice me the hours outstanding and be expected to pay those hours back in cash, i have told him i have spoken to acas and they have informed me that he is doing this unlawful and could be held at a tribunal to his amusment he laughed it off and said that wont happen!

He is expecting me to work these hours back so far i have already owed back 36.5 hours of which is costing me in petrol money to travel to and from work and as i said before 22.1 miles is a long way to travel without being paid for it and he has me doing 3 hour shifts so it is costing me more then what wags i would be getting if i was being paid. There are hours that i owe from the rota coming up short which i said i am more then prepared to work! but as of the end of this week i feel i no longer owe any more hours and as i may as well be classed as unemployed at the end of this i don't feel i should stick around!!

I would just like to know my opitons and where i stand and any advice would be a great help thanks alot!!!!

hcb42

do you have any written terms of contract? What was normal shift length.

I think you do have to work the hours, or pay back the money, if the shop was shut and you were on zero hours contract effectively - but I guess you need to be able to do this without being further penalised by travelling 22 miles just to work an hour or two.

Do you work in a hotel, or just at a golf course? Do you have a HR representative? Your boss wont be there much longer anyway...

dutbuster

No we have no written terms of contract i haven't signed anything he ust as a peice of paper that has printed on it my job description and roles!

It is just a golf course it is private so it is run by its members of which they decided to terminate his contract! i do not have a hr representative. indeed he wont be there much longer but i feel as if i am being trapped into this and forced in to working hours unpaid which is of such magnitude has to be against the law? I can work three hours a day or do full days which are 10.5 hour shifts!

hcb42

I would ask for written particulars first.

ultimately, if indeed it is a zero hours contract, then you will have to make the hours up. Are you able to get to the member committee to discuss the options? It sounds like your "employer" is not really au fait with employment matters tbh.

You could also ask if some of the banked shifts could be transferred to holiday days, to reduce the amount of hours owed? I presume thuogh, that you have not had any notification of holiday days. What was agreed you would be working when you went to work there. you might need to go down the grievance route, but it's all a bit difficult without knowing the particulars of employment

dutbuster

what do you mean by zero hours contract? and i have mentioned that and also asked if those 3 hour shifts coul dbe turned into full days to cut costs for myself but he isn't interested! i have spoken to the secrectary and she has also said the same as acas did which is i don't have to owe the hours back and spoke about other options if he wasn't willing to not let me go as for holidays i don't know where i stand? but surely any outstanding holidays i should be payed for?

hcb42

I am not clear on what basis you were employed? AS it is a seasonal business, I have assumed that you are on some kind of zero hours contract i.e. they just call you in as and when? Is that correct? Or were you expected to work a set number of hours each week, in which case that changes everything.

It is not illegal to pay for hours and bank them, meaning yuo have to work them back - providing that is what is agreed in your employment "contract" which seems to be a little bit woolly! On what basis did you accept employment? What was agreed, and what has been happening up to now, before the "snow".

does the secretary not have more clout in the golf club, than this boss? Can they not override him?

dutbuster

The job description states i will be excepted to work on average 30 hours a week so i imagine it is 30 hours a week contract of which as i said is banked if not worked.

but in my time at the club he hasnt put me down to work over on 30 hours exactly no more then twice everything else has been 2-6hours under a week so on average i have been working 27 hours a week but getting paid for 30 which is fine and as i said im more then prepared to work the hours outstanding which i feel i owe.

Well my boss is self employed but paid a retainer to be attached to the golf club of which is to pay me also! so im not sure weather the secretary does have more of a standing she deals with companies suchas acason a regular basis and beleives he is in the wrong! don't know if this can help you firgure it out?
thanks

zzzLazyDaisy

Okay, some basics:

1.Do you get a wage slip? If so it will identify your employer on the wage slip. This is necessary to establish whether you are employed by the golf course or by the man who runs the shop. This is important because we need to identify who your employer is in law.

2. The law requires an employer to provide a formal written statement of certain employment particulars within 2 months of the employee starting work. This includes details of hours, salary, and holidays (among other things). Unfortunately, there is no independent avenue of redress or penalty for an employer's failure to do this (but see next point)

3. In my view it is unlikely that a tribunal would uphold an employer's claim that this is, in effect, a zero hours contract, with no written evidence of this, since this wages are a fundamental part of a contract of employment. It is possible that the tribunal might agree that if the employee was unable to attend work due to the extreme weather conditions, then the employer might be entitled to stop his pay for that period, however if it is the case that the employee was able and willing to attend work but the employer's actions made that impossible - eg the employer closed the shop because there were so few customers due to the snow, then the tribunal may say that the wages should have been paid. This will depend on all the facts. [But please note that ultimately no-one can ever guarantee what a tribunal might decide]

4. Since the wages have been paid, the question of whether the employer can now lawfully recover the wages depends on whether the employee was entitled to be paid in the first place (see point 3 above).

5. The legal way of dealing with this problem is to make a complaint to an employment tribunal for unlawful deduction from wages and/or breach of contract for failure to pay wages on specific dates. A claim for compensation for failure to provide a written statement of employment particulars can then be 'piggy backed' onto that claim, together with a request that the tribunal make an order that the employer must provide the written T&Cs.

6. OP can lodge the claim while still in employment (although it will make him unpopular and could result in the employer dismissing him) but before making a claim he must notify the employer in writing that he does not accept that the employer has the right to deduct his wages and ask to be paid all outstanding money owing to him. Note there is a strict three month time limit for making a claim from the date that the last failure to pay wages takes place (count three months forward and one day back - but come back if this is confusing, at this stage you just need to be aware of the time limit)

7. If the employer refuses then OP can go ahead and make the claim. If OP is dismissed as a result, the he can make a claim for unfair dismissal on the grounds that he was dismissed for asserting a statutory right (to be paid) which is an exception to the normal rule that you have to have 12 months' service before you can claim unfair dismissal.

8. If the Employer is about to have his contract terminated by the golf course, one of two things will happen (assuming OP still has a job at that stage) a) the shop will close and OP will lose his job. He won't be entitled to a redundancy as he doesn't have two years service or b) the shop will be taken over and his employment will be transferred under TUPE to the new person/company running the shop (although if at that point he has less than one year's service they may terminate his contract and there may be nothing he can do about it in that case).

I am sorry that this reply has turned into a long post, but I am trying to explain things in logical steps so OP can understand what the legal position is.

I hope this hasn't made things more complicated, but if you don't understand anything, or have any questions, please post again and I will try to help.

dutbuster

as to point 3 my wages was paid but i was as it says able and willing to attend and make an effort to be there it was his choice to not have my services which either he should have notified myself 2 days per 1 day i was off and took it out of my holiday is my understanding on it?

Thanks alot i will have access to the job description in about 40 minutes as i will be home and when i do so i will type up every thing it says on that description to give you a better insight as to possibly what the ts n cs are!
thanks again big help!

dutbuster

also in regards to the wage slips it is his name on the wages slips and on my statements not the golf clubs!

hcb42

Yes, it would be good to see more of the Ts and Cs around hours, but if they are on average 30 per week, and you have been doing close to that, and you have been paid, then you are not on a zero hours or casual contract, and as you were able to work, they should pay you for the time when the course was closed.

I was leaning the other way actually, as I have worked for a golf hotels for years, and although we kept the shop open for reduced hours for retail sales, our contracts with staff mean that they do fewer hours in winter, than in summer/or are on a casual basis.