Who is liable?

shoe*diva79

Hi all

A PAYE employee of the employment agency I work for was completing a job for a client. This job took them to Wales where they had to cross the Severn Bridge. The employee didn't pay the toll instead signing a invoice stating payment would follow and then handed it into the company with the rest of the job paperwork that evening.

Today the client have processed the paperwork and found the toll invoice. It states if payment made within 24 hours a £5 admin charge and after that a £80 debt recovery fee is added and for each 24 hour period the recovery fee increases. The client has paid the invoice today at a eye watering £105. They are happy to pay the usual fee for the employee to cross the bridge but say the employee must pay the recovery fee. The employee is refusing to pay the recovery fee.

Usually in our line of work, employees would pay such tolls and claim back via expenses. This employee didn't tell anyone at the client (or us at the agency) about this invoice, just left it with the paperwork from the job which got processed by the client today.

Who is liable to pay the recovery fee? The client, the employee or the agency?

Many thanks

sjbrun

It depends if the employee wants to work for the agency / employer again.

shoe*diva79

sjbrun wrote: »

It depends if the employee wants to work for the agency / employer again.

Indeed. As a agency we can choose who we give work to. Can we deduct the recovery fee from his wage to pass onto client if the employee refuses to reimburse...

unforeseen

shoe*diva79 wrote: »

Usually in our line of work, employees would pay such tolls and claim back via expenses. This employee didn't tell anyone at the client (or us at the agency) about this invoice, just left it with the paperwork from the job which got processed by the client today.

Who is liable to pay the recovery fee? The client, the employee or the agency?

Regardless of what you think is usual in that line of business, what did the agency or client brief the employee about the bridge.? What was in the employee's contract about such costs?
I don't see that the employee had any reason to pay if not contracted to. It was part of the cost to the client of the job and he fulfilled his obligation to give the invoice to the client in a timely manner.

The client only have themselves to blame for being slack in checking the received paperwork and causing themselves to incur the penalty

unforeseen

shoe*diva79 wrote: »

Indeed. As a agency we can choose who we give work to. Can we deduct the recovery fee from his wage to pass onto client if the employee refuses to reimburse...

Only if you want him to take you to court unless his contract has a clause in it allowing you to

unforeseen

TBH both the client and agency appear to be rather slapdash in how they conduct BUSINESS and the employee is probably well shot of both of you.

Rosemary7391

I'd treat this like any other mistake or momentary inattention (because I wouldn't expect to have to pay an invoice within 24 hours and I don't know who would!). Do you ask your employees to pay for those?



Might be worth tightening the advice around expenses up and make sure employees know how to get advances for expenses if need be.

shoe*diva79

unforeseen wrote: »

Regardless of what you think is usual in that line of business, what did the agency or client brief the employee about the bridge.? What was in the employee's contract about such costs?
I don't see that the employee had any reason to pay if not contracted to. It was part of the cost to the client of the job and he fulfilled his obligation to give the invoice to the client in a timely manner.

The client only have themselves to blame for being slack in checking the received paperwork and causing themselves to incur the penalty

There were lots of options he could have taken - paid the original toll (£16) and claimed back via expenses. If he couldn't afford to do so he could have called either the client or the agency and payment could have been made over the phone. Or he could have let someone know he had signed an invoice instead and that it needed paying within 24 hours.

I will be checking his contract tomorrow - the client are more than happy to pay the toll fee but don't see why they should pay the recovery fee when it could have easily been avoided.

shoe*diva79

Rosemary7391 wrote: »

I'd treat this like any other mistake or momentary inattention (because I wouldn't expect to have to pay an invoice within 24 hours and I don't know who would!). Do you ask your employees to pay for those?



Might be worth tightening the advice around expenses up and make sure employees know how to get advances for expenses if need be.

The only thing the employees occasionally need to pay is toll's such as M6 or in this instance the Severn bridge depending on the route they take as lorry drivers to their delivery destination.

The employee has signed the invoice stating he has read the terms and conditions (i'm talking 5 lines of text, not several pages) yet didn't think to mention to anyone that it needed addressing.

Brynsam

shoe*diva79 wrote: »

Indeed. As a agency we can choose who we give work to. Can we deduct the recovery fee from his wage to pass onto client if the employee refuses to reimburse...

Unless the employee has signed a contract which specifically allows such a deduction, no - it would be an unlawful deduction from wages.

steampowered

As this person appears to be an employee of the agency, he is protected by s13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 which prevents you from making any deduction from his wages unless authorised by his employment contract (see https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/18/section/13).

If the employee was liable to pay the fee, it would have been simpler to just leave it as an issue between him and the Severn Bridge.

Whether the client has to pay this expense depends on the terms of the contract between them and the agency - i.e. if the contract requires the client to pay all expenses the client is contractually required to pay, but if it only covers 'reasonable' expenses the client may not be required to pay.

If the agency is left carrying the can, then this effectively becomes a £100 loss to the agency arguably due to the employee's negligence. For that the employee may be subject to disciplinary procedures on the basis of running up excessive expenses, and in theory the agency could sue the employee for negligence, but a direct deduction from wages is not permitted unless authorised by the employee's employment contract or authorised by the employee in writing.

In the real world I suspect the agency may end up carrying the can.