Can my employer withhold pay?

I_Love_Shoes

I work for a photography company, I was taken on to cover the busy Christmas period.
I had my last shoot yesterday, so I got my invoice ready and emailed it to my boss expecting to come and collect a cheque today like I normally do. He rang me to say he's not paying me until I've given him back all his equipment, despite saying he's giving me a job for the next Christmas Period. I don't mind giving it back, but I haven't finished all of my editing yet and he said he won't pay me until he has everything up to date and back with him. (my equipment is a portable studio and an iMac computer)
This doesn't seem fair as he has never mentioned it before and I have bills coming out soon! By the time my cheque clears I will have missed a lot of my bills =(
Opinions please...

Uncertain

I_Love_Shoes wrote: »

I work for a photography company, I was taken on to cover the busy Christmas period.
I had my last shoot yesterday, so I got my invoice ready and emailed it to my boss expecting to come and collect a cheque today like I normally do. He rang me to say he's not paying me until I've given him back all his equipment, despite saying he's giving me a job for the next Christmas Period. I don't mind giving it back, but I haven't finished all of my editing yet and he said he won't pay me until he has everything up to date and back with him. (my equipment is a portable studio and an iMac computer)
This doesn't seem fair as he has never mentioned it before and I have bills coming out soon! By the time my cheque clears I will have missed a lot of my bills =(
Opinions please...

If you are invoicing the company they you (and they) are trying to treat this as a self employed situation.

If you are in fact self employed (and ultimately it is HMRC who decided this and not you or the company) then this is not an employment matter. One of the the many factors that helps decide this is who owns the equipment so, on this one point at least, it would tend to suggest employment.

Legally you have no right to hold on to somebody else's property so you cannot hold the iMac to ransom!

Unless you are going to argue you are actually an employee then you can't claim the wages via an employment tribunal.

In the real world this comes down to whether you want more work from them. If you do you will have to reach an amicable compromise and not get involved in a game of who blinks first!

I_Love_Shoes

I work on a self employed basis with them, I'm not holding the equipment ransom, Im still using it! I haven't finished all my work for them quite yet, but they have always told me whenever I want to be paid, just drop them an invoice.

Jarndyce

Seems quite reasonable to me that you get paid when you deliver the finished work - and the equipment.

Sambucus_Nigra

I_Love_Shoes wrote: »

I work on a self employed basis with them

Then they aren't your employer. They are your client.

Mistral001

I think the OP has to waken up to the fact that they are being fired by this client. It happens to the best of us sometimes.

PS As others have said this is not an employment issue. You could try posting this on the The Small Biz & Charity Organisers MoneySaving Board. There are lots of self-employed people posting there.

I_Love_Shoes

Mistral001 wrote: »

I think the OP has to waken up to the fact that they are being fired by this client. It happens to the best of us sometimes.

PS As others have said this is not an employment issue. You could try posting this on the The Small Biz & Charity Organisers MoneySaving Board. There are lots of self-employed people posting there.

Thank you for your comment, but I am not being fired, I'm a freelance photographer so I have come to the end of my hired contract with this company (the Christmas Period) and will be taken on again next year.