Having a Rant 23 May 2014 at 7:17AM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in N. Ireland 6 replies 1.2K views

Freefromdebt_2

OH went self employed a couple of years ago. He was employed on the Friday, s/e on the Monday and had been with the same employer for approx 6 years. He got the grand total of 2 days holiday pay ( all employer could afford allegedly). He has had nothing but hassle and grief from the person he is a sub contractor to (same person as employer). Invoices are sent fortnightly in arrears and are paid fortnightly in arrears. He has now started to hold payment off OH stating that he does not received the emailed invoices. I send them myself every fortnight. I am just so cross at this person, he blames OH for everything and anything that goes wrong. I am a fair and honest person but this person is really bugging me and the law with s/e individuals is so grey. I have pleaded with OH to find something else. I hope he does and then I tell this person exactly what I think of them.....ooh roll on that day.

x12yhp

If you were to discuss the matter with HMRC, they would be rather interested in speaking with this 'employer'. In truth, your OH is also in the wrong but, if the 'employer' is doing this with other people, he would be very much in the wrong and could get in serious trouble with the authorities.

warmhands.coldheart

I'm afraid it's the nature of the beast when you work Self Employed.
Usually in these situations it's down to Cash Flow..... If your OH's employer is having cash flow issues due to his clients not paying him usually what happens is they do the same with their suppliers to save themselves getting too far into the red....... Happens all the time in many businesses..... the number of times my company are late on payments with suppliers due to late payments from customers..... it's a vicious circle !!

dmxdave

When I went self employed 4 years ago I was told that I could not work for just one supplier as this was deemed that I should be employed by them as a full time employee...
I would advise your husband to try and get some work from other people and gradually get away from this individual.

Personally one customer owes me £3000 from last November, this was for goods supplied so I have had to pay my supplier and wait on payment. There were a few teething problems but this have been sorted out and he tells me he cannot pay me until his customer pays him....

jenfa

I agree with other posters re self employment status. Under Employment Law regulations there are a number of criteria that differentiate between employee and not. Provision of tools, company vehicle, ability to make own decisions, working for same employer. Tbh if he carried on the exact same job that he did on the Friday when he started on the Monday then he is still an employee. Did he get a choice to go self employed or was he really told that was the only way he'd be able to stay on?

Sometimes HMRC have slight different interpretation to employment law but this is their info. http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/employment-status/

Whatever we say it isn't going to change your rant! So let's hope he looks for another job

Mistral001

Freefromdebt wrote: »

Invoices are sent fortnightly in arrears and are paid fortnightly in arrears. He has now started to hold payment off OH stating that he does not received the emailed invoices. I send them myself every fortnight.

This sounds like a self-employment scheme started as a way of saving Employer's National Insurance and the other costs associated with employing someone as an employee. As others have said this firm is not the OP's OH's employer but just a customer or client of the OP's OH. There is no employer-to-employee relationship here, only a business-to-business relationship and often businesses pay other businesses late unfortunately. In fact in Northern Ireland in some sectors (e.g. the construction industry) the terms and conditions of say 30 days payment (most common time for payment put in terms and conditions) are generally regarded as the time at which you start to consider paying an invoice.

Freefromdebt_2

He was not given a choice - was told he had to go self employed and he was doing the same job on the Monday (as s/e)as he was on Friday (as an employee). He works only to this contractor. He is not permitted to work for anyone else. I do think this was to reduce his employers staff costs. The 'Contractor' pays cash for houses, drives a £70k car etc. OH was told to send invoices in fortnightly, they wouldn't accept weekly or monthly invoices and there is very little out there in his line of work. I have researched a little bit and as far as I can see he would be treated by HMRC as an 'employee' of this person. It all gets so confusing.