No contract after one year

[Juno50]

Hi there 

 

I work for an estate in North Yorkshire. I have been here over a year. I still do not have a contract, every time I ask they say ow it's still been worked on. My concern is when I leave next year, will they pay my overtime. I heard they won't because it's in the contract. Obviously I don't have one yet. 

[BankFodder]

I expect that someone with specialist knowledge will arrive to give you some good advice soonish. In the meantime, do you realise that after two years employment you then have a certain security. You say that you have been working for over a year. This means that if you rock the boat too much you could be vulnerable to some kind of retaliation.

[Ell-enn]

Did you ever get a letter offering you employment before you started work?   i.e. stating what your hourly rate/salary would be, place of work, holidays, pension  etc?

 

Have you had payslips each month you have been working?

[Juno50]

No letter of offering at all. Yes I have had pay slips each month. 

[Ell-enn]

How did you know what you were going to be paid, hours of work etc?  was nothing written down at all?

 

The fact that you have payslips shows there is a contract formed between you and the employer,   but you should have had your statutory terms and conditions of employment in writing before you started work and certainly within 8 weeks of starting.

[Juno50]

I was told in my interview and via email my pay and hours. But certainly no formal letter of any kind 

[Ell-enn]

Depending what was in the email - that could be your offer of employment. 

[Manxman in exile]

Don't lose the email!

 

Did it mention overtime?

 

Are you happy with the job otherwise?  As Bankfodder says you may not want to rock the boat until you've been employed for two years and you get better employment rights.

[Juno50]

No no mention of overtime. So let me get this correct, you basically have no rights in your first two years of working somewhere. 

[Manxman in exile]

In the first two years they can pretty much get rid of you for any reason (or even no reason!), so it's perhaps a bad idea to give them any excuse until the two years are up.  Even then, establishing that say, you've been unfairly dismissed, is not always easy.

 

In the first two years I think you would be able to sue for "wrongful" (as opposed to "unfair") dismissal, but there you are talking about legal differences beyond my competence.

 

Is there a problem other than the lack of a written contract?  You could ask again (tactfully).  eg "Oh - I've just realised that I don't seem to have a copy of my terms and conditions.  Can you let me have a copy?"  If they keep refusing you might decide that either (1) there's something funny going on here, or (2) they're simply incompetent.

 

Assuming you pay tax and NI, you may want to check with HMRC that deductions are being paid over to them.  (I assume you can do this without your employer knowing - others will know how).

 

Are you being paid for overtime worked?

[Ethel Street]

You have fewer rights, not no rights. You can't take your employer to Employment Tribunal for Unfair Dismissal in most circumstances until you have worked there for 2 years. But you can take your employer to Tribunal to recover unpaid wages however short a time you have been there.

 

But your concern at the start was "... when I leave next year, will they pay my overtime" so you are planning to leave anyway?  Have they paid you overtime up to now? If so your payslips will be evidence that under your contract they pay overtime so if they don't you can bring a claim for unpaid overtime agaisnt them. Do you have any reason to think they won't pay it?

 

Keep your payslips!

 

 

 

 

Edited June 25, 2019 by Ethel Street

[ericsbrother]

so what were the contracted hours? if for example they say the working week is 40 hours and you work at least 45 then that is the actual working week

[ericsbrother]

Also work out the number of hours you actually worked and divide them by the amount you were paid and if it is less than the minimum wage you can go after them for that. You can also claim for the failure to provide you with a contract within the time allowed by law.

If you like your job then you keep all of this in reserve for when you leave.

also keep a tally of your paid annual leave as they may decide to give you time off in lieu of overtime. You will need to raise all of this at least a month before you leave so whn yu hand in your notice will be the last date for doing so or they wont be able to put things right if it was incompetence on their part that caused the problems rather than a disregard of ther legislation