Giving notice with no contract - advice please!

Permanently_confused

Hello!

I have been working for a very small company for nine months. There are 3 branches with 2 people working in each branch, in one of the branches it is the two owners that work there.

I have been working at least 4 days a week since starting my Masters, in October 2011, however I have never had a contract, despite asking for one on numerous occasions.

The owners are nice enough but I have NEVER been paid on time, it is normally by personal cheque or bank transfer from a personal account with no reference to employment and I have only ever had one genuine PAYE slip, the rest have been created on excel and printed off.

I now plan on leaving at the end of June, but I don't know how much notice you are supposed to give and as I don't have a contract, where do I stand on making sure that I get paid once I have left?

Anyone who can advise on any aspect of this, I would really appreciate it.

LittleVoice

Permanently_confused wrote: »

Hello!

I have been working for a very small company for nine months. There are 3 branches with 2 people working in each branch, in one of the branches it is the two owners that work there.

I have been working at least 4 days a week since starting my Masters, in October 2011, however I have never had a contract, despite asking for one on numerous occasions.

The owners are nice enough but I have NEVER been paid on time, it is normally by personal cheque or bank transfer from a personal account with no reference to employment and I have only ever had one genuine PAYE slip, the rest have been created on excel and printed off.

I now plan on leaving at the end of June, but I don't know how much notice you are supposed to give and as I don't have a contract, where do I stand on making sure that I get paid once I have left?

Anyone who can advise on any aspect of this, I would really appreciate it.

Notice period - as you have worked there for more than one month and do not have anything in writing about notice periods, the satutory requirement is that you give one week's notice. So, for example, if you hand in your notice on a Monday, your last day of employment would be the following Monday. I don't know whether you would ever be expected to work on a Saturday but, if you were and by "the end of June" you mean 30 June, you would need to hand in your notice no later than 23 June. If you want to give more notice, you could - especially if you think they won't decide to give you notice to leave earlier.

If they don't pay you properly (including any accrued holiday pay), they can be pursued for payment.

By the way, have you received a P60 yet? It was due to be issued to employees by 31 May.

A print-out from an Excel sheet would not automatically not be a proper PAYE payslip, it depends on what it shows.

agrinnall

You can generally find information about things like this on the relevant DirectGov pages, in this case:

Notice Periods

Pay and Pay Slips

If the Excel printout contains the information specified below then it's fine, although as LittleVoice says you should have had a P60 by now.

What your payslip must contain


Every pay statement must contain the following information:

• amount of your wages before any deductions (gross wages)
• individual amount of any fixed deductions (such as trade union subscriptions) or the total amount of these deductions if you are given a 'standing statement of fixed deductions' as detailed below
• individual amount of any variable deductions (for example tax)
• net amount of your wages (this is the total after deductions)
• amount and method for any part-payment of wage (such as separate figures of a cash payment and the balance credited to a bank account)

Permanently_confused

Hi,

Thanks for the replies, they have really helped me feel a bit more confident about handing my notice in.

LittleVoice, I haven't received a P60 yet, should I have received it already and be chasing this up? Last year I think I got my P60 in June.

Thanks.

LittleVoice

Permanently_confused wrote: »

Hi,

Thanks for the replies, they have really helped me feel a bit more confident about handing my notice in.

LittleVoice, I haven't received a P60 yet, should I have received it already and be chasing this up? Last year I think I got my P60 in June.

Thanks.

As in post #2, you should have received it by now because it should have been issued by 31 May.

Last year the deadline was the same so it seems your previous employer was also tardy in getting P60 forms out to employees.

I'd prioritise getting your final pay right. If you haven't received any written particulars of employment, your holiday year will run from the time that you began employment with this organisation and you would be entitled to 5.6 weeks in a full year. As you appear to work variable hours, you would need to work out your paid holiday entitlement as 12.07% of what will be your worked hours up to the time your employment ends. Did you get paid for holidays at Christmas/New Year, Easter or the May Bank Holiday or any other time and would be be paid for Monday or Tuesday next week? That would all be deducted from your paid leave.