Payday Loan Hassle My Employee's

thehig

Hi

I'm an Assitant manager at a Leisure Indusrty business, several of my staff are not in great finincial positions.
Some have taken out Payday loans and cannot payback, have defaulted so are getting harrased via phone.


They are very rude on the phone, and telling them this is a business line and staff cannot take personal calls does not stop them.

What can we do to stop these calls ?
Are these payday loan companies in breach of anything by doing this ?

I'm looking at what the empolyer can do stop them calling us.

gb12345

thehig wrote: »

Hi

I'm an Assitant manager at a Leisure Indusrty business, several of my staff are not in great finincial positions.
Some have taken out Payday loans and cannot payback, have defaulted so are getting harrased via phone.


They are very rude on the phone, and telling them this is a business line and staff cannot take personal calls does not stop them.

What can we do to stop these calls ?
Are these payday loan companies in breach of anything by doing this ?

I'm looking at what the empolyer can do stop them calling us.

The employees should write to the respective PDL companies and tell them that they want all future communication in writing and that they are not to contact them at work.

If they continue, it can be treated as harassment and they will be in violation of OFT rules, and so can be reported.

Also, if the PDLs have discussed the reason for the call with you or anyone else except the borrower then they will also have broken DPA rules.

jonesMUFCforever

Can you block any incoming calls?

thehig

gb12345 wrote: »

The employees should write to the respective PDL companies and tell them that they want all future communication in writing and that they are not to contact them at work.

If they continue, it can be treated as harassment and they will be in violation of OFT rules, and so can be reported.

Also, if the PDLs have discussed the reason for the call with you or anyone else except the borrower then they will also have broken DPA rules.

They say its a personal call, but I after asking who's speaking several times they say what company they are ringing from.

Is the only way to make the employee's contact the pay day loan companies, is it not possible for our organization to contact them and tell them to stop ringing the number, as its a business line.

thehig

its very tough to sack people now a days in the UK, with threats of Employment tribunals potential costing the company thousands.

Also I do not want to sack these staff, they are good staff members and we have no cash short problems or issues with trust.

gb12345

thehig wrote: »

Is the only way to make the employee's contact the pay day loan companies, is it not possible for our organization to contact them and tell them to stop ringing the number, as its a business line.

I'm not sure. You could ask them to stop ringing, but if they ignore you then I'm not sure what you could do legally - whereas if they ignore the request from the borrower then they are definitely breaking OFT rules and action could be taken.

opinions4u

Run a financial education session for staff.

Highlight the stupidity of PDLs.

Tell staff that if they give out their employment details to PDL companies disciplinary action will be taken.

Offer a salary advance scheme to staff - only allowed to be used once a year.

Pay the employees a living wage.

Any of those ideas help?

nomoneytoday

Why not add condition of employment that any future PDL applications don't include your work number?

pheonixrising21

opinions4u wrote: »

Run a financial education session for staff.

Highlight the stupidity of PDLs.

Tell staff that if they give out their employment details to PDL companies disciplinary action will be taken.

Offer a salary advance scheme to staff - only allowed to be used once a year.

Pay the employees a living wage.

Any of those ideas help?

First two points, excellent
Point 3 - on what grounds? Depends on what is in the contracts. Could be opening up to employment tribunals there. Taking a PDL is not illegal. Mainstream lenders sometimes ask for employment contact details as well, would you ban those too?
Point 4 - excellent
Point 5 - anything less than NMW is already illegal

pheonixrising21

Being skint is not a crime and does not automatically mean your morals go out of the window.

But, while we're at it, why stop wth PDL's? Lets continue down that very slippery slope you at the top of. Why not a loan of any type? An overdraft? Credit cards? A mortgage? People fall behind on mortgage payments all the time. Even negative equity could make someone desparate enough to defraud a few thou from the company to get back into positive equity. Should an employer do regular credit checks combined with property valuations to make sure you're always in postive equity, and then sack you if the value of your house drops?

Where do you draw the line? Maybe even owning a car that is worth more than (say) 50% of a year's salary, whether its been bought on finance or from the employee's own savings? Do you go round their house and check the size of their TV and how many Sky channels they have? Would someone who went to exotic locations on holiday twice a year be worthy of being sacked because they shouldn't (in your opinion) be able to afford those holidays on their salary and so must be stealing?

Maybe you would sack someone for having no savings? Clearly, if they have no savings to fall on if an unexpected expense comes up then they must be planning to steal it from the company if one does!

How about those who don't pay into a pension? Obviously, they are planning to work at the company all their lives and then steal a couple of hundred thousand to retire on just before they leave! Why save it when you can just steal it from the company?

But anyway, at least the compensation for wrongful dismissal and defamation of character would pay off the PDL's....

moomin_master

I had 8 pdls and now down to three. Not 1 penny has come from my work from stealing. 5 have been cleared from working even harder. So will the last 3. My morals haven't gone out the window. However, you'll find it is greed not desperation that will let people steal from companies.