Cash in Hand Job - Then Not Paid!!

williamc10

A young gentleman who is a close friend of the family took a cash in hand job as a pot washer in a working mens club. He was paid at first but then after a long period of doing shifts, the owner stopped offering him work and has refused to pay him for the shifts he did. There are no records other than the whatsapps between the owner of the working mens club and the young lad to arrange the shifts etc. Is there anything I can do to help him get his money - apart from try to appeal to the club owner's better nature?

Brie

I wonder if there's a way to show the what'sapp messages to HMRC without getting the young man in trouble.  If the owner is doing this to one person he's likely doing it to many others.  And then there's the issue of not paying income tax and NI.  

badmemory

I do not think you will find that the club owner has a better nature.  I am also prepared to bet that he has history of doing this.  Unfortunately this is one of the problems of working cash in hand.  No proof & no rights.  I hope someone comes on & gives some good news.  There are too many not nice people in this world.

Brie

Oh here's a thought.... if it's a working man's club might there be a union presence that attends evenings?  They might be interested.  

born_again

Don't they have a committee that actually runs the club?

Hoenir

born_again said:

Don't they have a committee that actually runs the club?

If there was an owner was it actually a working mans club. 

born_again

Hoenir said:

born_again said:

Don't they have a committee that actually runs the club?

If there was an owner was it actually a working mans club. 

Our local cricket club, has a bar run by someone, they have to bid to run the bar & approved by the club committee

Mr.Generous

Someone did this once to the son of a workmate. Big Pete we called him. At least 6'6" and probably 19 stone. He went down to the newsagents with his son to request the wages. Owner declined - but was obviously very scared. Big Pete instructed his son to collect what was owed from the till.

The police were called and Big Pete spent a few hours in the cells!! Nothing came of it, and the money was retained by his son, but still, not a nice experience.

Sorry I can't help!

Slinky

Plaster it all over the local facebook pages. It won't get him the money, but it'll cause him some issues. Could even report him to HMRC.

Vectis

Slinky said:

Plaster it all over the local facebook pages. It won't get him the money, but it'll cause him some issues. Could even report him to HMRC.

I'd be very wary about doing that. Where's the proof that he wasn't paid? Granted, there's no proof that he was paid either, but that won't help much if the owner gets nasty.

Vectis

Aren't they both to blame here, to greater or lesser degrees?

Both the owner and the friend were hoping to avoid paying tax and NI, with the owner also allegedly not paying what was agreed to the friend.

But why would the friend wait until after 'a long period of doing shifts' and not being paid to walk away? Why wouldn't you walk out the door as soon as you didn't get paid at the end of the first week or whatever? It's not as if it's going to look bad on his CV, walking away after only a week or so in a job like this.

It's not much help, but isn't this a risk you take when you don't do things legally, have no agreement in place and nothing in writing apart from some WhatsApp messages?