No furlough and employer won’t pay wages.

bairdy11

Hi, I have worked in a pub for 3 years but it was taken over in January and a manager put in. She failed to register us on paye in time for us to be furloughed, she didn’t get an accountant until the day the government ordered pubs to close. She is saying that she can’t afford to pay us wages either. I have had to change from working tax to universal credit and I have worked out I am not down £680 per month because of the benefit change and no wages. Is there anything I can do to make her pay us? Even though she is self employed could the company that own the pub be accountable for hiring her as a manager? She paid us in cash each week in a brown envelope, never took for tax or insurance (I didn’t earn enough so doesn’t effect me but it does the other employees who have now had bills for it).
she won’t confirm that we are in continuous employment either even though we had not resigned, been made redundant or dismissed. One of my colleagues has worked there for 20 years. 

She is now ignoring all messages from us. 

gary83

nobody can force anybody to furlough them, that’s optional on the part of the employer. If nobody was registered for PAYE on the 19th of march then nobody is eligible for furlough.

If I was feeling uncharitable I’d point out you and your colleagues can help support yourselves with all the unpaid tax and national insurance that hasn’t been declared or paid over the years. A lot of people have missed out on furlough by not being on the RTI on the 19th March because they’ve recently changed jobs, I think most people have a lot of sympathy for them. the fact that all employees in this pub were quite happily getting paid cash in hand and avoiding paying tax is probably a pretty good reason to deny them access to tax payers cash now they want it, you can’t have your cake and eat it.

on a practical note what does your contract say? How many hours are you contracted to work each week?

Jeremy535897

You clearly know the important questions to ask, such as continuity of employment. I think it is very likely that there was continuity of employment, otherwise the previous owner would have faced some hefty redundancy bills. See https://www.gov.uk/transfers-takeovers

You have accrued certain statutory rights, for example redundancy:

https://www.gov.uk/redundancy-your-rights

Your employer has to pay you according to your contract of employment. Your manager is the employer from what you say. I don't think you would have recourse to the owner. This is an article on not getting paid on time:

https://www.peninsulagrouplimited.com/guides/wages-not-paid-on-time/

If your wage is currently £120 a week or more, and it looks likely that it is, but less than £183 (when you start paying NIC), you should still have your wages put through payroll, because otherwise you will not qualify for class 1 national insurance credit. That can affect entitlement to some benefits, and your pension.

bairdy11

I only work 16 hours and don’t earn enough to pay tax and insurance. I was unaware that no tax etc had been taken from my colleagues wages since January until they told me they had got bills. We handed our new manager our p45’s, copies of passports, national insurance numbers etc so she could set us up on paye before she took over. 

We have received no contract although we were assured we would all keep the same hours that we previously worked. 

The pub was closed from the beginning of January for a refurb and we had to meet the new manager each week to pick up our wages from the new owners and have no paper work for that either. 

The new manager has been incompetent from the start. 

I just want to make clear that we or those who needed to had always had tax and insurance deducted from wages until the new manager came in.
i am however very worried that none of us have contracts or anything In writing. Although we are now on paye she has only put on wages for feb and March and nothing that we received in January. 

Jeremy535897

If you work 16 hours a week you may lose out regarding benefits and pension entitlement if your wages were not paid through the payroll for January. I thought you were not actually being paid all your wages but now I am not sure about this.

bairdy11

We haven’t been paid a penny since the pubs closed on 21st March 

Jeremy535897

I'm guessing you were paid weekly. It is a pity the manager was so dilatory about putting you all on the payroll. If you go back to my original post you will see a source for what to do regarding unpaid wages. It might be worth calling ACAS.

bairdy11

I did call Acas and was told to request the information I mentioned, are we in continuous employment, list our start dates and hours worked each week, rate of pay, reason why we have not been furloughed and reason why we are not being paid and we are getting no reply from her.