They can't afford to pay me

Nicky9

Thanks everyone for you comments, especially Lazy Daisy, extremely helpful & informative.

Acc72

Just to confirm - you have been employed by this company for 30 years.

The only employees are yourself and 2 directors ?

Ok, my advice would differ from those above in the first instance.

The above advice may work in larger companies but with a company of this size I would be surprised if they even have a greivance procedure - and even if they did, what would you hope to achieve ?

What exactly would raising a greivance achieve - there are only another 2 people in the company !

You need to work out what you want (obviously, to keep your job and to be paid) - but surely after 30 years you should be able to sit down with the other 2 people, have a cup of tea and explain your concerns.

Tell them that you want to continue to work for them, but it is also reasonable that you get paid.

As you are currently up to date pay wise, you and only you need to make a decision - eg. do you play hardball and say that you want to be paid every week and if you are not paid on Friday then you will not be in work on Monday and will only return when you have been paid (this way, your only risk is one weeks pay), or you take a chance and continue to work for nothing.

Good luck and let us know what happens.

cloud12321

if they dont pay you your full wages owed with out any legal reason, you can take them to small claims court where they will be forced to pay you the full amount owed, this happened to a friend and he also got a 8% compensation on top of what the company owed him.
I would also try for another job ( i know its difficult to get one these days) even if its a different field of work that will actually pay you on time and full amount until you get another job in your chosen line of work

zzzLazyDaisy

cloud12321 wrote: »

if they dont pay you your full wages owed with out any legal reason, you can take them to small claims court where they will be forced to pay you the full amount owed, this happened to a friend and he also got a 8% compensation on top of what the company owed him.

Your friend must have already left the company with money owing to him as that would have crystalised the debt. This strategy does not work if wages are paid but paid infrequently and late, because you can only make a claim for money specifically owed at the date of the claim and still owing at the date of the court hearing. With wages being paid irregularly, but eventually paid you are chasing a moving target.

I also agree with the advice to do what you can to keep the job and get paid, obviously that must be the first choice.

But if OP gets to a point where she intends to throw in the towel and walk out of the job, it is very important that she does invoke a formal grievance procedure, as a failure to do so will serious damage any prospect of succeeding at a CD claim - and in this case it is worth trying to get it right, bearing in mind that the basic award is calculated in exactly the same way as a redundancy payment, and OP has 30 years service.

As I said before, I would never advice anyone to resign and make a claim for CD because the prospects of success are statistically poor. But if wages continue to be delayed and she is unable to resolve this with the employer, she may decide enough is enough and resign - my point is, please don't do that without going through formal steps - at least give yourself a fighting chance.

pinkshoes

Are the other two people not getting any pay either? (just out of interest...)

Where is the money going?

AP007

pinkshoes wrote: »

Are the other two people not getting any pay either? (just out of interest...)

Where is the money going?

As the other 2 are directors I am guessing they will be paid before anyone else