A varied selection this week. As a bonus, I’ve included a template grievance letter covering a breach of contract and an unfounded disciplinary allegation.
Employed or self-employed, or both?
Workplace bullying is not being taken seriously. What should I do?
Sacked for working overseas, then reinstated - Sex discrimination?
Disciplined for asserting a contractual right not to work on a bank holiday. Next steps? [Template letter included]
Unsatisfactory result of the grievance process. What can I do now?
Race discrimination - employee questioning why he couldn’t use the n-word. What to do as an employer
My employer says holiday accrual ceases after 4 weeks of absence. Is that correct?
Employer has charged for training but refuses to provide the certificates. Next step.
Are my working hours legal?
Employer unilaterally altering working hours by closing at the weekend. Can they make us take holiday or unpaid leave?
Employed or self-employed, or both?
Q. I wanted to ask your advice regarding one of my staff. They originally were on a 16 hour a week contract and we as a business failed to pay them for around £2500. Mainly due to covid issues. However it has now come to light that the employee never clocked in when they should and didn’t give us the hours for working from home as a seamstress. As it stands according to the hours she’s claiming, we have over paid her £5000. She still hasn’t provided proof of the hours she has actually done. The shop system and the required log in had been used in the business and not at home even though I know she had access and on a few occasions a fully admits she forgot to clock off at home. So some days showing she had done 22 hours when clearly she hadn’t. Any other work she’s failed to give me any proof of work or time.
We then agreed that she would go on unpaid leave and work freelance so we as business wouldn’t rack up any more debt and she would become a freelance seamstress again and instead taking the £25 per job commission and she would keep it. (She did 90 jobs on this arrangement) she was required to be covered on her own insurance and still hasn’t provided it.
I believe that I am not responsible for her NI payments as she was on unpaid leave earning no money from us but she should have been paying it as a sole trader along with any other business expenses.
She also resigned with no notice from the unpaid leave job and had to be persuaded to finish jobs she was doing freelance and had been paid in full by clients to do so. The contract also states she had to follow company policy and procedures which in the clocking in and out she hasn’t done.
A. This situation seems quite complex; however, I’ll try to address each point.
Firstly, if you have underpaid an employee (£2,500), you may be legally obligated to pay them the outstanding amount. This may be the case even if they have not provided complete records of their work hours. If you have overpaid an employee, you may be entitled to recover the overpaid amount. However, this could depend on various factors, such as the employee's awareness of the overpayment and whether they have acted in good faith. It may be challenging to recover overpayments if the employee is not cooperative or you cannot prove the overpayment amount.
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