Thanks for the comprehensive advice! I have downloaded the employment tribunal ET1 form. I shall get a claim sent ASAP and instruct my colleagues to do the same. Then if we need to we can link up claims later down the line. And if we need to take on board a no win no fee solicitor to represent then we have that luxury also. I have a contact. Thanks!!

Deductions of tax and NI are the same on each payslip. However, total tax and NI paid to date is less on the nil net salary payslips. Payroll is in the UK so I could check.

Unfortunately none of us are members of any union! A lesson to learn for the future noted! Yes all deductions were shown on the payslips. Even more bizzare, on the corrected payslips deductions NI, tax are still shown, however it states only net pay to be £0 "non payment".

I work for a small biopharmaceutical company in the UK. I am employed under contract as a full time worker with a monthly salary at our UK labs (pretty straight forward). We also have a site in Malaysia. The CEO who oversees all is based in Malaysia. The company acquired new Amaerican owners to fund us in 2011. Since then the company has been struggling financially. As a result I have not been paid since November 2011 (2.5 months ago). I have 3 other colleagues in our UK labs in similar situation. We have written an "email before action" demanding money by the 31st January 2012. We still haven't been paid despite false promises of money coming in "very soon" or "by the end of the week" etc... In addition it is evident that money has been paid by our investors towards lab rent costs rather than salaries. I needed to claim benefits to help with my rent. For this I needed payslips stating that I have not been paid as evidence. I received payslips stating that I had been paid in full!! After reminding them this was fraud I then received the correct payslips. We want to get the ball rolling with legal action to get our salaries but my questions are: - What is the best way to go about this? Employment tribunal alone? (we are pretty capable people and have evidence of bank statements, emails etc at hand). Or phone a solicitor? - Is it better to claim combined as a four or claim individually? - What can we claim for? Our contracts state that either employer or employee need to give 3 months notice on terminating contract. So in addition to our salaries can we claim for 3 months notice period salary too? - Who is the best to make the claim against, the CEO (directly responsible for us) or our American funders who acquired us? - How likely are we to succeed in claiming considering our CEO is in Malaysia and our funders are in America? I would imagine logistics would be a nightmare from the UK!!! Thank you and hope to hear soon.