Ex-employer not fulfilled Compromise Agreement

Purple_Dove

I am looking for advice as I was made redundant and offered a compromise agreement, in the agreement it stated that I would receive all holiday pay owing to me. When I received my final payment this was omitted. They have been contacted and alerted to the error, however more and more time is passing and they seem reluctant to pay.

Does anyone have any advice on what steps should I take to get this resolved?

fannyadams

keep on contacting them
remind them of what is written in their Comp agreement
if you were paid monthly then they may have to wait for the next payment cycle to pay the money they owe you.
they are chancers but that's the way of the world, sorry.
I had this with my work. they paid me short and I had to email them 3 times before they 'remembered' to pay the rest of what they owed.

bargainbetty

Give them a date to comply with their side of the agreement before you begin legal proceedings against them. Note that you will seek legal costs from them due to their failure to comply with the matter.

Have they issued you a P45? That will need to be redone, as holiday pay incurs tax and NI.

McKneff

How much time is more and more time.

They may be waiting for the next pay run.

LittleVoice

bargainbetty wrote: »

Give them a date to comply with their side of the agreement before you begin legal proceedings against them. Note that you will seek legal costs from them due to their failure to comply with the matter.

Have they issued you a P45? That will need to be redone, as holiday pay incurs tax and NI.

I don't believe that P45 forms can be re-issued. If one had been issued then they would just tax at BR.

zzzLazyDaisy

Most of the payments due under the compromise agreement are made outside the normal pay run in a lump sum severance agreement.

Holiday is different in that it is money earned while you were employed, so it must be paid through the payroll in the normal way and is subject to tax and NI.

So this situation that you are experiencing is not uncommon. What date were you normally paid when you were employed? If that date has not yet passed, it may well be that this will be dealt with at the next payroll run.

Purple_Dove

Thank you all for your words of advice. I have received my P45 & final payments (except holiday pay) & well over a month has passed. I guess the best way forward would be to send an additional e-mail & seek some advice on how to take this further, small claims court perhaps. Legal advice is expensive. This situation is incredibly frustrating, they drew up the agreement you would expect them to adhere to it! Does that mean I can choose which parts of the agreement I want to comply with?

zzzLazyDaisy

Purple_Dove wrote: »

Thank you all for your words of advice. I have received my P45 & final payments (except holiday pay) & well over a month has passed. I guess the best way forward would be to send an additional e-mail & seek some advice on how to take this further, small claims court perhaps. Legal advice is expensive. This situation is incredibly frustrating, they drew up the agreement you would expect them to adhere to it! Does that mean I can choose which parts of the agreement I want to comply with?

You need to send a letter, by old fashioned snail mail. Do this today. Send it by first class post, and get a certificate of posting from the post office (free). Keep the CoP in a safe place. Tell them that if you do not receive the holiday pay in cleared funds into your bank account [give details] by 4pm on 27th July 2013, you will take legal action to enforce the compromise agreement.

HOW you enforce the CA depends when it was entered into. If it was made before the end of the employment, then you can enforce in the employment tribunal. If that is the case you need to be quick as fees come in on 29th July (hence my reference to 27th July above). If you wish to enforce the agreement in the ET check the date on the CA against the date on your P45. If the CA is dated before the P45, you can proceed in the ET on a breach of contract claim (actually this would be unusual as most CA's are dated after the ending of the employment, for tax reasons, but it is worth checking).

If the CA is dated after the P45 then you can bring a claim in the small claims court for breach of contract. In that case you must comply with the Practice Direction on Pre-action Conduct, so come back here for advice if it gets that far.

noelphobic

When I signed a compromise agreement I went through the paperwork with a legal advisor before I signed it. He also signed it and my understanding was that if there were any problems with my receiving the agreed payment I would go back to him for resolution. Is this not standard practice?

The legal advisor was paid for by my trade union and I did work for a large organisation, so I suppose the situation would be different for someone who worked for a smaller organisation and/or did not belong to a trade union.

zzzLazyDaisy

noelphobic wrote: »

When I signed a compromise agreement I went through the paperwork with a legal advisor before I signed it. He also signed it and my understanding was that if there were any problems with my receiving the agreed payment I would go back to him for resolution. Is this not standard practice?

The legal advisor was paid for by my trade union and I did work for a large organisation, so I suppose the situation would be different for someone who worked for a smaller organisation and/or did not belong to a trade union.

That might be OP's best bet. Her potential problem is that the fee paid by the employer simply covers the cost of advising her about the content and effect of the compromise agreement. Any later dispute or enforcement is likely to result in a further bill. In your case you were backed by the union so presumably the union's legal department would advise you or fund any enforcement proceedings, whereas in OP's case she could end up running up a legal bill which exceeds the money owed to her.

It might be worth a phone call - although OP should make absolutely certain what the cost is likely to be before the solicitor carries out any work for her.

Purple_Dove

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

You need to send a letter, by old fashioned snail mail. Do this today. Send it by first class post, and get a certificate of posting from the post office (free). Keep the CoP in a safe place. Tell them that if you do not receive the holiday pay in cleared funds into your bank account [give details] by 4pm on 27th July 2013, you will take legal action to enforce the compromise agreement.

HOW you enforce the CA depends when it was entered into. If it was made before the end of the employment, then you can enforce in the employment tribunal. If that is the case you need to be quick as fees come in on 29th July (hence my reference to 27th July above). If you wish to enforce the agreement in the ET check the date on the CA against the date on your P45. If the CA is dated before the P45, you can proceed in the ET on a breach of contract claim (actually this would be unusual as most CA's are dated after the ending of the employment, for tax reasons, but it is worth checking).

If the CA is dated after the P45 then you can bring a claim in the small claims court for breach of contract. In that case you must comply with the Practice Direction on Pre-action Conduct, so come back here for advice if it gets that far.

Thank you so much for taking the time to offer your valuable advice. You are indeed correct, the issue with seeking legal advice is that it will cost more than is owed but I would like the amount owing to me to be paid up. I am shocked and disappointed that it was not just part of the process and that I have to take further action to claim what was agreed to be paid to me.

In terms of payment of holiday pay, are you only paid for full months worked or would it be reasonable to expect the percentage of the month to accrue you more days (presumably whole days)?

Thanks again!