Salaried but laid off without pay

Grizzly_Bear_2

I have been with my employer for 18.5 years in the building trade. They have laid me off, without pay, although I am a salaried employee as they have no work for me, site manager.
This is the second time this has happened over the last two years.
They stress I have not been dismissed but have to wait, unpaid for them to decide I have enough work to return. To cut it short I am on a job where the architect has made a mistake and the planning dept now have to reconsider the job, so it has been halted. I have wife and two youngsters to support, but am unsure if they can do this. If your job said they had no work so they were not goingto pay you for 2 weeks, a month, 3 months til work came in, how would you feel. Can they do this? Do I have any rights? I am in limbo. If I find alternative employment, I lose 18 years worth of benefit, so why don't they make me redundant.
Please help, I have an appt at CAB but not til next Friday and I have been off 2 weeks already.

john1

see http://www.worksmart.org.uk/rights/if_i_am_temporarily_laid_off_from


Obviously seek further advice but the TUC site indicates that you should continue to receive full salary unless your contract of employment says otherwise



extract from relevant page


If I am temporarily laid off from work what is my pay position?

This depends on your contract of employment, which may incorporate a term of acollective agreement. If there is no provision for lay off without pay in the contract your employer is obliged to continue paying your wages.
Some contracts state that pay will be suspended if there is no work. In such cases you are entitled to guarantee pay based on your normal pay, but subject to an upper limit of £23.50 per day for up to 5 days of lay-off in any period of 13 weeks.
This entitlement exists for all employees (including fixed-term workers and part-time employees, whose entitlement is calculated on a pro-rata basis) who have at least a month’s service.


best of luck in these difficult times

Grizzly_Bear_2

Last time it happened my employer printed an unsigned contract which mentioned this lay off and SGP. However, 18 years ago I don't remember that being in my contract but just took it on the chin last time, but have never found the original contract that I would have received back in the 1995. I have loads of paperwork dating back years in the loft but have just had it insulated and can't easily get to the crates containing all the stuff.

Grizzly_Bear_2

I am not saying categorically that they just produced this contract, but they have joined with another company and this has only really happened since that amalgamation so it just makes me wonder if their original contracts may not have contained the same, but then they were in the building trade so I guess those contracts would be as standard.