Help advice needed re:company withholding payment

sambalina

Hi.
Firstly the scenario is this.
My husband worked as a self employed driver for a well known delivery service until recently.
He left for work on 28th December at 5am as always. Did all his deliveries and was back home by 11am.
When he came home he was already on the phone to the boss who wanted him to go and collect a parcel 5 hours later and drive back to the depot with it. The problem being that this is not cost effective to my husband who went to work for a loss that day considering it was just after Xmas.
The boss then suggested that he send a van to meet him to take the parcel. To which my husband replied that if he can send a van to meet him, he can send a van to collect it seeing as how someone was in the area anyway.
To cut a long story short,they argued over the phone, my husband refused to go back to work for him (this was one incident over his employment there that pushed him over the edge) so he hasn't been back since.

Jump to today.
Payday tomorrow. And he gets an email.

An afternoon off sick in November they are now charging him £75 for
A week off at the start of December for a minor operation that was authorised they are charging him £150 per day.
The afternoon he walked out they are charging him £75
He is self employed and has invoiced for £1700 which is due tomorrow for work done before Xmas.
They are saying they are not paying him and are using his money to cover expenses that they incurred for his time off which is about £900
They are also keeping the rest of his money to pay for any repairs needed on his van.
In this email they have offered him his job back and while it doesn't say it directly it is implied that if he goes back to work all charges will be forgotten.
Even though they have offered him his job back, we have it on good authority that the job is already advertised internally.

So, it's a bit long winded and a long story.
But.
We need advice.
Can Anyone help?

Thanks in advance

TBagpuss

What contract did he have with them, and what does it say about his obligations etc?

If he was self-employed then it is relevant to look at what the contract says about what happens if he fails to turn up on a day he agreed to work - so it is possible that by missing a day / half day at short notice he was in breach of contract, even if the reason was because he was ill.

How long ago was it, and had he been paid for the period covering that day?

It's harder to see how he could be in breach if there was an agreement that he wouldn't work on a particular day, but there may be a dispute over whether it was agreed.

In the first instance, it may be helpful to ask them to itemise the amounts they say he owe, with reference to *why* they say they are owed and to the relevant sections of the contract.

This assumed of course that he was genuinely self-employed

sambalina

He has worked as a self employed driver for 15 months after working for them as an employed driver for 12 months.
He has never seen or signed a contract
The day he was off sick he had covered his half day with another worker. And was cleared to go home. Although that is now being questioned by the company.
He was authorised time off for his operation which now they are also taking back.

I suggested that where he may be stuck is that he walked out leaving them short staffed at short notice.
However. It is also my understanding that if they were going to charge him for time off, they should have done so already and not now.
I also thought that they cannot withhold payment, but can invoice him for any damage on the van.
A few people have already suggested small claims court.

sambalina

So today he had been paid 350 of his invoice

They kept 900 for time off they now claim was unauthorised
They kept 400 for the van he leased for potential repairs

The time off he had was from November and December. Those invoices have been paid and settled.
Surely he can't now withhold money and charge him retrospectively because he's !!!!ed off?
Someone mentioned something about making a statutory demand as they have to pay the invoice within 30 days.
Currently waiting on legal advice but that might not happen till Monday now.

We are still in limbo over this

Can anyone help at all?