Contract Issues, Furlough, Delayed Opening - Not Sure What is Going On?!

[RJH]

Posting this on behalf of my other half who has a few issues with her employer at the moment, and hopefully someone will be able to assist. I'll list some info that I know to try and help but happy to answer questions or find out other info if needed.

- Both my partner and her mother run a Sports & Social Club that is on the grounds of a factory.
- Overall control of the Club is held by the overall owner of the factory
- No staff have ever had contracts presented to them, or signed anything to that extent. Half of staff have been there over 2 years, the other half less.
- Staff are paid hourly rates, and receive paid holidays
- Currently on furlough and have been told by the 'committee' at the factory on site that they have no plans to reopen the club until after Xmas at the earliest (no real reasons provided as to why). Factory on site is open and operational. On this note, Club staff members haven't been written to individually about things and have only found out through my partner relaying an email to them that states basically what I've written here.
- No idea what they are doing after furlough period ends (end of Oct?)
- One of the staff members is preganant, not sure how this sits with anything.

At the minute nobody seems to be wanting to give answers as to what is going on, what the plans are for the Club staff are, or annything at all. All staff want clarification on whether their roles are still there or not, and whether there are plans to actually open in the New Year or if the owners are just stringing things out and being a bit dishonest.
Also, contractually where do they stand on the fact they don't have contracts per se, but are paid holiday etc?

Finally, they are paid by cheque through this furlough period and they delayed payment to some staff the other week because two of the committee members (they need two signatories) couldn't be bothered to make the effort to go to site to sign them.

Please help

[ULA]

Sorry there are a few things to unravel here so some questions:

1. Who is the employer of the sports and social club (SSC) staff? Is it the factory owner?
2. Are the SSC staff normally paid via PAYE and into bank accounts or before furlough were they paid by cheque?
3. Do the SSC staff get payslips?
4. Has your partner tried to establish what is happening and if so how has this been done.

Responses to the above would be very helpful. Thank you

[RJH]

Ula thanks for responding. In answer to your questions:

1. The employer shows up as the Sports & Social Club itself, but the actual owner of the Sports & Social club is a very large, well-known organisation.
2. SSC staff are paid PAYE but were paid in cash (after tax deducted) before furlough.
3. Yes, they do receive payslips.
4. Yes she has, she has tried speaking to the committee in the factory that oversee the SSC, but all she has was an email saying they wouldn't be looking at opening until the new year (or words to that effect). The committee has a whatsapp group set up that includes my OH and her mother, and they occassionally email between each other.

Hope this helps.....

[ULA]

I am thinking that since your partner's is not getting an adequate response from the factory committee that she should raise the matter with the actual owner of the SSC.

[RJH]

Ula I will see what we can do from this side of things. How is it best to approach them based on the info provided so far? Just tell them that there isn't a satisfactory response from the committee?

[ULA]

I would set out the details of the information that has been provided so far to the SSC staff, however point out that since they are currently furloughed and this scheme runs out at the end of Oct, if the SSC is not reopening then potentially the staff are redundant and what provision is being made to start consulting with them about this situation.

[RJH]

Ula hope you’re well.

I’m in the process of putting something together for my partner to send to them. However, she’s just messaged me to say she won’t be receiving her wages this week as there is nobody to sign the cheques. Can they do this? It’s the second time in recent weeks!

[ULA]

Effectively not paying wages is an unlawful deduction of wages. I would suggest that your partner emails the relevant person, making the following points:

1. This is not the first time it has happened and is not acceptable since staff rely on being paid at the appropriate time for their own personal budgetting and payment of bills.
2. Request a date when the current outstanding wages will be paid.
3. Detail that this is an unlawful deduction of wages for which your partner could submit an application to the Employment Tribunal for non-payment.