Employer unable to pay wages

Dragonfly74

Hi,

Just wanted some advice as to the next step . My husbands employer has been unable to pay wages up to date . For the past 12 weeks he has been getting part or no wages, then gets one week and so it continues. At present he is owed 3weeks wages. They approached the HR yesterday and handed in a letter with their grievance and were told even with this letter they still haven't got the money to pay wages. This is, as you can imagine, a very stressful and worrying tome as we have bills, mortgage etc and have been using what little savings we had.

My husband has worked here for 20 years so would be due redundancy if the company went bust , but they do not seem to be going down this route.

Could anyone give any advice as to what his next step should be. He is not in any Union.

Thanks in advance!

TELLIT01

If the company can't afford to pay staff wages I would suggest they are a long way down the road to going bust. If he isn't being paid I would have thought he should be looking for a new job now. He could lose more in unpaid wages than he will get in redundancy pay if the current situation continues.

sangie595

Dragonfly74 wrote: »

Hi,

Just wanted some advice as to the next step . My husbands employer has been unable to pay wages up to date . For the past 12 weeks he has been getting part or no wages, then gets one week and so it continues. At present he is owed 3weeks wages. They approached the HR yesterday and handed in a letter with their grievance and were told even with this letter they still haven't got the money to pay wages. This is, as you can imagine, a very stressful and worrying tome as we have bills, mortgage etc and have been using what little savings we had.

My husband has worked here for 20 years so would be due redundancy if the company went bust , but they do not seem to be going down this route.

Could anyone give any advice as to what his next step should be. He is not in any Union.

Thanks in advance!

I am afraid there is little he can do. They can submit a letter before (legal) action for the money owed, but if the company don't have the money that won't make one iota of difference. And if the company refuses to go into administration, the cost of forcing that to happen would far exceed what is owed. If they simply stopped trading and didn't go into administration, then the government scheme does not compensate workers for wages or redundancy pay owed. So I would agree that getting another job would be the most reliable way of securing his income, albeit it won't solve his problem. But it will head off the bigger one if they simply cease trading.

TELLIT01

I thought it was illegal for a company to continue trading when they know they are insolvent. I don't know the legal definition of 'insolvent' but this lot clearly can't pay their bills.

Dragonfly74

Thank you for all your replies.
My husband has got an option of another job with less pay , but we were unsure if it would be worth hanging on to get redundancy or to cut his losses. It is such a strange situation. They did have administrators in but it was decided that they would continue trading under a different name. Luckily the staff fought for a tupe so service years were carried over. However now I wonder what to do for the best.

lincroft1710

How long does your husband want to "hang on" for? 6 months? A year? Surely it is better to work for a company that pays what it owes?

Dragonfly74

Yes, I know just a horrible situation to be in never knowing if he will be getting paid.

esuhl

If a company told me they weren't going to pay my salary as they didn't have the money, I wouldn't continue working until they'd settled their debt.

Dragonfly74

It is a strange situation it's as if they pay them a week then nothing then it is paid up to date , then nothing again. I didn't know wether it was worth seeing a solicitor.

sangie595

TELLIT01 wrote: »

I thought it was illegal for a company to continue trading when they know they are insolvent. I don't know the legal definition of 'insolvent' but this lot clearly can't pay their bills.

It is. But like most things, it is never that simple. Nobody polices this - nobody has a right to. So it would require a creditor to take legal action. And even then trading whilst insolvent isn't clear cut. Trading whilst not always paying your bills doesn't cut it. Companies can and do trade themselves out of temporary cash flow problems - and that is perfectly legal.

sangie595

esuhl wrote: »

If a company told me they weren't going to pay my salary as they didn't have the money, I wouldn't continue working until they'd settled their debt.

You could certainly do that. But two breaches of contract don't make right - if you don't work you terminate your employment and then you are entitled to nothing except overdue wages anyway!