sainsburys nightshift underpaid

zzzLazyDaisy

If the employer has admitted underpaying holidays for 10 years, then arguably the time limit for making an unlawful deduction from wages runs from the date of the last underpayment (as a continuing course of deductions on the basis that the underpayment continued from year to year without a break). Of course the counter argument would be that each underpaid holiday was a separate incident, in which case anything more than three months ago would be out of time (but it would be 6 years for a breach of contract claim in the county court). So I would be inclined to go for a tribunal claim, and if the tribunal rule they do not have jurisdiction, I'd go to the county court (note you could not do this of the tribunal heard the case but ruled against you, as the country court would then not have jurisdiction to hear a case on the same facts).

The union's legal department should be looking into this - USDAW has a good legal department with solicitors who know what they are doing, so I am surprised to hear that they are not being supportive.

The_inquisitor_2

Maybe let your local paper know about it as well. Journalists love doing stories about the little guy that's being done over, and then they'll probably offer the full 10 years as a 'good will gesture' to avoid any bad publicity. The worst that can happen is a no!

Li0nhead

This a nation thing or just local?

Speaking to someone i know who works shift at Sainsburys knows nothing of it.

chuckley

im amazed they told u! thats amazing. what a cashpot!

j0gapwns

it is a national thing that applies to all sainsburys stores and all nightshift (generally) and those who do 10hrs as their contract

dktreesea

This might be worth a read:

http://www.northgatearinsoemployerservices.com/essentialnews/2-employment-law-news/25-payroll-errors-and-related-legalities

Quoting from the article:

"The main effect of Employment Rights Act 1996 Part II (s.13 to s.27) is to make it unlawful for an employer to make any deduction from the wages of a worker employed by him unless the worker has agreed in writing to the deduction being made or it is required by law."

So presumably, if the company contracts with you to pay the night shift at a certain rate, including holiday pay, and then fails to pay that rate, under employment law you would be entitled to recover the unpaid amount for all the years that the company has not paid you at the contracted rate (assuming it was over the NMW).

To claim it, you would probably need your hours (FOI request to Sainsburys who should at a minimum have the last six years of records since they are required to keep those records by law) and the pay you received, and then work out what you should have received. Surely the union would have templates to make working out this kind of thing less onerous?

DCFC79

Contact your union rep then come back and give us an update.

chelsea111_2

An update from my store,i've worked nights for js in london for just over 8 yrs ft 39hrs a week and in my letter i was informed i would be getting £371 which i thought was fantastic until some other members of our nightshift showed me their letter and i was suprised to see that another colleague who hasn't done even 3 yrs has been given £495 as did a handful of others,to say the rest of us are a little bit :mad: is an understatement.

we were also told NOT to tell other colleagues what we recieved i wonder why

naked

Just wondering,

If they only have records for the last 3 years, how come they know it's been going on for the last 10 years?

j0gapwns

they are not admitting 10yrs broke.they don't know how long at all the first post said they have worked that for 10 yr