Can they do this?

sooperb

My granddaughter started doing some work for her mother's employer, it was work to be done at home using her own computer and was delivered by email. She wasn’t paid a lot to start with but eventually was asked to do more and her “pay” was increased. There came a point where they stopped giving her work but continued to make the payment which went on for several months.

Her mother and the company fell out and she was dismissed, the company made a big thing out of tellling the daughter she was fine to carry on working for them though. When Mum started an Employment Tribunal case against them they were not pleased and at that point decided that the daughter could continue to work for them but she would have to do the work in the office, This was difficult as she was by then doing a college course 4 full days a week and the only available day was a Monday, her day off. She really didn’t want to go into the office but felt pushed into doing so or risk losing the job which she had expected to continue when she went to Uni. Anyway, they then said that she “owed” them several months work that she’d been paid for but hadn’t done (because they hadn’t given her any) so she would have to work for “nothing” until that was cleared. Which is what happened. Can they do this legally?

She has now also been dismissed, being told that it was because of her mother's actions in raising a court case against them so they no longer wanted her there. Nice people!

spadoosh

Strictly speaking no. You can not make someone work for free. What they can do is sue the daughter for the overpayment. Same result, different methods. Couldnt say if it worth kicking a fuss over, im inclined to believe it wouldnt be. At least financially the daughter would be in a fairly similar position. All be it the employer might get in trouble.

IAmWales

Was she contracted to a minimum number of hours? If not, she should have queried the payments at the time, few people get paid for doing nothing.

Strictly speaking she owes them the money, not the hours. If she resigned she would remain liable.

Comms69

To be clear if she was willing and able to work, but they didn't provide any then no they cant claim it back.


But what does her contract say? Is it fixed hours? What about annual leave?

pinkshoes

Sounds like they paid her in error whilst there was no work, so this money will need to be paid back.

(Unless she has a contract that says otherwise...)

IAmWales

Comms69 wrote: »

To be clear if she was willing and able to work, but they didn't provide any then no they cant claim it back.


But what does her contract say? Is it fixed hours? What about annual leave?

That would only apply if she was contracted to work a certain number of hours. Nil hours workers, which she is in the absence of other agreement, do not get paid when they don't work.

Comms69

IAmWales wrote: »

That would only apply if she was contracted to work a certain number of hours. Nil hours workers, which she is in the absence of other agreement, do not get paid when they don't work.

I agree, but if they've paid her, presumably it was based upon some kind of assumption of hours worked?

sooperb

When she started there was no contract, that only appeared when they decided she had to come into the office to do the work after they sacked her mother (who has just won a big payout because of their behaviour and the way they handled it). She never signed it and they never gave her a copy and have failed to produce it when asked. (Coincidentally much what they did with her mother, they asked for her copy of her contract because they couldn’t find the original and then tried to give her a new one which when she queried it never saw light of day). They really believe that they can treat employees as they like and that Employment Law doesn’t apply to them.

I think the responsibility to give the daughter work rested with them and if they didn’t then it was down to them to suspend payment but their admin isn’t good. They did say at one point they needed work doing urgently so she asked them when she should pick it up and didn’t hear any more from them.

spadoosh

This is fraught with complications OP. Its going to be incredibly difficult to give the correct advice without knowing a lot of the details.

Can i ask why youre querying this on her (their) behalf? Its just youre not going ot be able to provide things like the contract details easily and as such most advice will be worthless.

As an example in my first post i made the assumption your daughter was on a zero hours contract. A few post later someone assumes they are on a set hours contract. We offer conflicting advice. At the moment neither are wrong but thats not helpful to you in anyway.

sooperb

Yes Spadoosh I see what you’re saying. She had no contract when she started. The reason I’m asking is because they have sacked her too and she is taking them to the Employment tribunal too. She will have union representation, I was just wondering how much she would need to add to the case file, I didn’t want her to mention the working for nothing to cover money paid without her having done the work if it isn’t relevant.

spadoosh

sooperb wrote: »

Yes Spadoosh I see what you’re saying. She had no contract when she started. The reason I’m asking is because they have sacked her too and she is taking them to the Employment tribunal too. She will have union representation, I was just wondering how much she would need to add to the case file, I didn’t want her to mention the working for nothing to cover money paid without her having done the work if it isn’t relevant.

I would leave it there. Youve got the most appropriate person working with her as it is.

The knowledge here will probably be greater than that individual but they have the benefit of holding a lot more of the facts.

Im guessing they think there is a case or they wouldve advised against?