Employer thieving from us

1matrix

Looking for advice, I have been working as a courier for an airfreight company for over 5 years, as an ISP independant service providor, self employed mug, recently over the last 12 months I have discovered some very funny goings on concerning the fees their meant to pay me for the delivery and collections I do for them, for the first 4 years we never new how much we were getting per job as they kept it all secret in fact we didn't even know until the end of the month how much we had even earned for the month until they paid us,so we couldn't check it or query it,
Over the last 12 months they have started putting the price of each job on our monthly statement, but we don't see this till the end of the month, they do this so we can't refuse jobs or refuse to come in if we ain't earning enough for the day, so they pretty much hold us to ransom till the end of the month
Anyway now the prices are on the jobs we can not check at least something and see if the job was even worth doing, my friend works in the office and he as access to the computers and the fees this company charges customers per job, what their paying me is frightening,
How it's supposed to work
We was told when employed we would get 62% of the fee this company charges a customer so if they charge 100 to move some freight we would get 62, easy and very good, this isn't what their doing, from the 100 they are taking out multiple fees shipping handling trunking and other things which leaves say so 20 they are then giving me 62 of this, no explanation and in no way told us any of this at any time
Now I have this info I ask my friend to check odd jobs and tell me the fee of random jobs so I can at least check odd ones at the end of the month, they are taking even more out of some jobs without telling anyone or even explaining why, some jobs work out I'm getting 38%, this is theft
Every month there us always loads of jobs missing of our statement and unless you know to check you wouldn't know and they wouldn't tell you ,theft,
Some jobs we do are called specials, same day jobs ,these are worth a lot of money and very profitable to a driver, we have been doing some without being told and been getting very little money for them I found out 3 months ago and my friend made sure I was getting the right money ie a special can be £110 To me, now most jobs I don't get more than £5 So u can c, very profitable, these jobs they have been giving us £11, theft, the bulk of what they charge for these is rightfully the drivers, their taking fees out of them that they shouldn't,
I did 11 of these last month ranged from £70-£110 A job, nice bit of profit, they have stolen £428 from me as they have only paid me £72 for ALL these jobs, I have brought all this up umpteen times and get no answer and no fix and no money back the evidence I have n the things I have are mind blowing

My questions who can I go to for help, you see for the last 12 months I've managed to get some money back but only cause I've found it what about the 4 years I didn't know this because I couldn't check it?

Is there a financial service or solicitor, union government body anyone who can investigate this to it's full, even their new manager is convinced someone is thieving money from drivers fees

Sorry for any spelling mistakes or grammar keyboard is tiny

TELLIT01

Is there anything in writing to say what percentage of the job fee you will get? If not you might have difficulty in trying to do anything about it, apart from leave.

tacpot12

Your customer isn't thieving from you, but they might be in breach of contract. If they are, you can sue them and can look back over the last six years. You need to keep accurate records of the jobs you complete and use the information on the monthly statements to calculate what you should receive (based on the value for each job). If there is a discrepancy, raise it with them, and note their response. Once you feel you have sufficient evidence, you could start to sue them via the small claims court. The problem with this is that this may result in them deciding that it is too much trouble to employ you.

You probably have been underpaid, but how can you prove this without getting a list of all the jobs you have been completed? As a supplier, you are a data subject and can make a data subject access request to your employer. They might release a list of jobs where you were the courier to you, but then don't have to tell you how much they were paid or even how much you were paid per job. Your contract might give you a greater right to ask for this information - I would never advice anyone to sign a performance-based contract if the contract didn't give them the right to see the raw performance data. Otherwise, how can you check that you are being paid correctly?!

Not sure this helps much...

Exodi

As per TELLIT01, see if you can find your employment contract. If there are indeed payment terms that aren't being adhered to, you can push for breach of contract. If they simply state you will be paid a general percentage of deliveries, I don't know where you go.

That said, something like "We will pay 63% of the NET value of delivered orders" on your contract would completely invalidate your dispute.

McKneff

Op says he is sef employed, there would be no employment contract

Exodi

McKneff wrote: »

Op says he is sef employed, there would be no employment contract

Oh snap! Disregard OP

stator

You need to get together with your fellow drivers and hire a solicitor.


If you don't have some record of what they promised to pay you, you don't have much of a chance of getting anything.

TELLIT01

McKneff wrote: »

Op says he is sef employed, there would be no employment contract

There wouldn't be an employment contract, but there should presumably a contract between the OP and the person they are doing the work for.

bugslet

TELLIT01 wrote: »

There wouldn't be an employment contract, but there should presumably a contract between the OP and the person they are doing the work for.

Maybe not...you'd maybe surprised in transport world how often things are done on an ad hoc basis.

OP, apart from the advice given, as a long-standing haulier, please don't enter into these agreements. You get a job and you need to know what you are going to get paid before you deliver, if you don't know because you haven't come to an individual agreement before accepting the work, or you don't have a matrix to operate from, then they pay you what they pay you.