New job and not being paid

jeanmd

Panic over. Please see post #14 for explanation. x


Hi, Hopefully someone can help me.

My daughter is a student and changed her part time job four weeks ago. The company required her birth certificate to prove she was British, they wouldn't accept her small birth certificate so she had to send for a full length one. She handed this to them well over a week ago.
She has worked four weeks with at least double her shift time each week but still hasn't been paid.
She had to pay for clothes for the job in the first place as they have a strict dress code, and as it's coming to the end of her first term at uni she's now skint.
Her manager says he's tried to talk to HR to sort something out for her. The company quite strangely don't give out phone numbers and you can only find the store number online. She doesn't have a contract yet as they are still 'doing' the paper work.
She loves the job, but doesn't know what to do or where she stands.
Anyone any ideas?


Sorry, I should have said the pay is weekly.

**Juice**

This seems very strange. Has she been to citizens advice or something to find out what to do?

Badger_Lady

Eek, I don't like the sound of this at all... that's not right OP! :eek:

SarEl

I don't necessarily agree that there is anything wrong here. She needed to provide her full birth certificate to prove her entitlement to work in the UK - all employers must have such evidence on file, and perhaps she wasn't able to provide any of the alternative information required (a passport is more usually what is provided). Without having provided such evidence until "just over a week ago" then it is entirely possible that her payroll details could not be set up in time for the weekly pay runs - many companies seem to be unable to sort out these matters in less than two weeks, although I admit to being unable to fathom why. So I am seeing neither of these things are being of any real cause for concern - if anything, the fact that they are complying with UK requirements in relation to checking the work status of employees (which more than a few employers still don't actually do!) would suggest they are legit!

I would suggest another chat with her manager to see if he can get an answer from HR / payroll

Badger_Lady

But surely they shouldn't have been able to let her start work before they had this evidence? It's not only the Payroll that's affected. And to do four payrolls' worth of work unpaid and without a contract is worrying.

Edinburghlass_2

This happened with my daughter working for a big hotel chain, well not the birth certificate bit but she wasn't paid after the first month, she was due three weeks pay. They said her line manager hadn't given her bank details in on time although she had given them on the first day of working. Then on the second months pay run she only got one month's pay they had apparently decided that the first month was lying time which she finally got when she left.

Not great if you have rent to pay etc and pretty shoddy way of operating, she didn't stay long.

SarEl

Badger_Lady wrote: »

But surely they shouldn't have been able to let her start work before they had this evidence? It's not only the Payroll that's affected. And to do four payrolls' worth of work unpaid and without a contract is worrying.

You are quite correct - they shouldn't have let her start work without having provided the evidence first. But that isn't evidence of anything untoward - they took her word that she could provide the evidence, which they shouldn't have done. And that would have achieved the fact that she wouldn't have been working and therefore wouldn't have had the income anyway.

There is utterly nothing worrying about doing four payrolls work without a contract - she has a contract and has done so since the momenet she was offered and accepted the job. What is missing is the written statement of main particulars and that does not have to be provided until the eighth week of employment.

I honestly can't see anything in what the OP has said that indicates the employer is trying to avoid paying her or is operating a shady employment establishment. They have cut a few corners on the evidence of the right to work - and since many employers are still cutting all the corners on this, in itself it isn't a cardinal sin.

Another word with the manager explaining that she is struggling with money because she hasn't been paid yet will hopefully do the trick - her only other option is to refuse to work until she is paid, and that isn't likley to improve matters, and will likely lose her the job. And if they then pay up without a qualm, it's a job lost for nothing. She says she loves the job (which isn't something people usually do when the employer is dodgy - few dodgy employers have happy employees!), and there is no evidence at all that the employer is anything but a legitimate employer.

jeanmd

Badger_Lady wrote: »

But surely they shouldn't have been able to let her start work before they had this evidence? It's not only the Payroll that's affected. And to do four payrolls' worth of work unpaid and without a contract is worrying.

I agree with this, she could have stayed where she was working for a while until they had sorted it all out.

SarEl wrote: »

I don't necessarily agree that there is anything wrong here. She needed to provide her full birth certificate to prove her entitlement to work in the UK - all employers must have such evidence on file, and perhaps she wasn't able to provide any of the alternative information required (a passport is more usually what is provided). Without having provided such evidence until "just over a week ago" then it is entirely possible that her payroll details could not be set up in time for the weekly pay runs - many companies seem to be unable to sort out these matters in less than two weeks, although I admit to being unable to fathom why. So I am seeing neither of these things are being of any real cause for concern - if anything, the fact that they are complying with UK requirements in relation to checking the work status of employees (which more than a few employers still don't actually do!) would suggest they are legit!

I would suggest another chat with her manager to see if he can get an answer from HR / payroll

Thank you for your comments. My daughter gave her small birth certificate as soon as she started work, she does have her drivers licence and could have used that as evidence, though I guess that doesn't prove she was born in the U.K. The firm took two weeks to tell her that they needed her full birth certificate. I went the next working day and ordered it for her, she received it three days later and handed it in next day.
She says her manager has tried on numerous occasions to contact HR, but won't hand over the phone number.

I wouldn't mind but she's as English as they come, I've never seen anyone so pale.
I take it this is what happens when you work in London though she didn't have any problems at her first job, just too may hours, that interrupted her lectures.

She's going to ask in college today for emergency funding, but isn't happy about that.

jeanmd

You are quite correct - they shouldn't have let her start work without having provided the evidence first. But that isn't evidence of anything untoward - they took her word that she could provide the evidence, which they shouldn't have done. And that would have achieved the fact that she wouldn't have been working and therefore wouldn't have had the income anyway.

She provided the evidence that was asked for which was her birth certificate.

I honestly can't see anything in what the OP has said that indicates the employer is trying to avoid paying her or is operating a shady employment establishment. They have cut a few corners on the evidence of the right to work - and since many employers are still cutting all the corners on this, in itself it isn't a cardinal sin.

I don't think it's a shady business, it's quite a well known company. I was asking what she could do about not getting paid.

Another word with the manager explaining that she is struggling with money because she hasn't been paid yet will hopefully do the trick - her only other option is to refuse to work until she is paid, and that isn't likley to improve matters, and will likely lose her the job. And if they then pay up without a qualm, it's a job lost for nothing. She says she loves the job (which isn't something people usually do when the employer is dodgy - few dodgy employers have happy employees!), and there is no evidence at all that the employer is anything but a legitimate employer.

I know it makes a change to hear someone enjoy a job, though she also enjoyed her last one, just too hard traveling and long hours. I know she won't give it up unless they refuse to pay her full stop. She's just worried about not having money after paying out for clothes and travel.

jeanmd

Just a quick up date - still no pay.
She didn't ask Uni because she felt embarrassed.
She's asked for a sub from work they said they would Email her to let her know - nothing yet.
Worst thing is when I ask if she needs anything she says she'll manage.

TrickyWicky

She should get out ASAP. If its a well known company and they're still not paying her after this amount of time they won't.

She needs to either create an invoice and give it to the line manager for her time that has been unpaid with a 7 day deadline and try to hang in there or just get out and still invoice them.

Either way they're trying to screw her over. I've worked for a company like that years ago as an energy salesman (you know one of those people who knocks on the door trying to sell you a 'cheaper' fuel deal). Week after week went by "Don't worry you'll get paid next week I promise you" was what they kept telling us. It never happened but we all hung in there because we couldn't afford to loose potential wages. Just days before I packed it up they made the grand mistake of putting me in the CEOs street :T (We worked for a company that had a contract with the CEOs company and the blokes neighbours were more than happy to tell me which house he lived in). I felt like I'd been handed a golden goose that day and when I told the other newbies the next day they couldn't believe it as that kind of thing has potential when given to staff being screwed over. Needless to say they continued non-payment a few more days too many so I walked and sent them an invoice threatening further action if they didn't pay. They disputed the invoice and said they'd get back to me. So.. off went a letter to the CEO at his home address :cool: I didn't even know the blokes name (he was out when I'd knocked his door) so I simply addressed it to "The CEO of <company name>". Suddenly the company I'd been working for coughed up a cheque for a few hundred quid. The CEO of the company wrote me a letter back which acknowledged the issues and even included an apology with a reassurance that the company I'd worked for would be investigated :T Then the company I worked for sent me an extra £50 just to stop me making life even harder for them :rotfl:

Thats something I've learned over the years about companies.. they'll screw you over at the earliest convienience so the moment they're stupid enough to leave a sensitive opportunity in your reach that you can use against them in the future, grab it - even if they catch you they'll be too afraid of you using it to do anything. It's dog eat dog out there now and they'll carry on trading without you but if you have something on them that will back them into a corner you have the opportunity to survive them.