Advice for my father

[MrDCLondon]

Hello everybody,

 

I hope that I may be able to get some advice from this site, even if it is just to confirm what I thought was right all along....

 

My father is a self-employed plasterer, and recently was offered work, to which he gratefully accepted, by an employment business in London for work in a shopping centre in East London, for a total of 5 days ending the 12th of September 2011.

 

He was expecting a rather nice pay check for his work on the 26th of September, but upon checking his bank account that day, nothing was paid in by said company. We called them up about this to be told that "time sheets were missing" and that he would not get paid until they company could find these time sheets.

 

My father confirms that on a daily basis, his Project Manager witnessed him arriving and departing from work with the other worker-seekers contracted by the employment business. On his last day of employment, an EMPLOYEE of this employment business collected his time sheets that were signed by the site PM.

 

Since then, the company in question seems to have "changed their mind" around the events, now claiming that my father was AT FAULT for not getting time sheets signed, even though I have credible witnessess (the other workers on site, and potentially the PM...still awaiting a call back on that one) that say timesheets were signed and collected by the employment agency. I have a rather lacklusterous email from the company M.D stating that my father is at fault and that "without time sheets it is very difficult to verify [my father] was on site".

 

I'm at my wits end here, now the company in question is refusing to return my phone calls, not answering my emails and generally being rather hazy around what is happening.

 

I would appreciate if I can get some guidance around what the law says about this, and what rights do we have - having done some prior digging, I thought under the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Business Regulations 2003, Section 12 indicates it is unlawful to withhold payment relating to lack of timesheets?

 

Hope to hear from you all soon!

 

Best Regards,

 

DC

[rebel11]

Hi mr

 

The guys will be happy to advise as soon as they are available.

[MrDCLondon]

Thanks rebel, any help is greatly appreciated!

[42man]

You should issue a letter beofre action.....if there is any kind of dispute then it should be them who pay your father first, then if there is a dispute they are the ones who should claim it back.....if you have witnesses you are on very strong ground.....

[MrDCLondon]

Hi 42man,

 

I have written numerous letters and emails over the past 2 weeks, most of them stating the facts around the case that we disagree with their statements saying it is my father that is at fault RE time sheets by not getting them signed.

 

I had a phone call with the owner of the employment business today and in his own words he cannot pay my father as he "doesnt know how many hours he worked. He could say he worked for 2,000 hours for all I know" and that "its under his terms and condition of contract that he should have had his time sheets signed".

 

They seem to just ignore my statements and are circling around the same points - I told them an employee of their business personally collected the timesheets from my father..to which the reply was "I will investigate that. This is news to me"...that was three days ago, since then no response.

 

Any ideas what else I could write as a letter to them?

 

ACAS + CAB are advising to submit an Employment Tribunal, at this stage is that the best way to go?

 

Thanks for your assistance, very much appreciated

[42man]

Avoid talking to them any further and go and see a solicitor or issue a letter before action giving them 7 days to respond.

[42man]

Send me a PM with the name of the organisation who are refusing to pay and the end client your father worked for. You can bet they have invoiced the end user/client company

[MrDCLondon]

Thanks 42man, sounds like a sensible plan - that's what I was thinking all along.