Recently terminated, wasn't paid for 6 months

[Houyami]

I was working for a website, which was in essence a digital magazine, I was employed to work there 6 months ago. While I happily did the work that was assigned to me, I saw no payment for any of the work I had done and when I asked for a copy of my contract, the C.E.O told me that they had no contract drawn up as it "took time to make one that abides by laws for different countries" (unable to grab that log as . The site has been up since Jan, 8 2014 (perhaps sooner, that is unknown to me as that is the earliest date I know of) so being told that is an immediate red flag to me. When I was terminated no mention of being paid what was owed to me was made (can provide a copy of the email). As far as I am aware, no other employee's are being paid as well, nor were any benefits given for working for the employer. Is there anything I can do to get the money that is owed to me?

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Recently terminated, wasn't paid for 6 months

Hi and welcome aboard

On what basis were you employed by them? Were you offered a six month fixed term contract (even if there wasn't a written contract, were you told that's what it was)? Or were you meant to be a 'freelancer' (self-employed or limited company)? Did you work there full-time or just on an ad-hoc basis?

I'm sorry but I have to ask, during the six months you worked there, did you invoice them for your work? If you were meant to be on their payroll instead, surely when, after one month, you saw no money, you'd have asked what was going on? :confused2:

Were you previously acquainted with the people you worked for, i.e were they your friends, relatives or acquaintances?

[Houyami]

Re: Recently terminated, wasn't paid for 6 months

Hi and welcome aboard

On what basis were you employed by them? Were you offered a six month fixed term contract (even if there wasn't a written contract, were you told that's what it was)? Or were you meant to be a 'freelancer' (self-employed or limited company)? Did you work there full-time or just on an ad-hoc basis?

I'm sorry but I have to ask, during the six months you worked there, did you invoice them for your work? If you were meant to be on their payroll instead, surely when, after one month, you saw no money, you'd have asked what was going on? :confused2:

Were you previously acquainted with the people you worked for, i.e were they your friends, relatives or acquaintances?

I was employed there as a permament employee working full-time. I was in fact on their payroll and when I inquired to the location of my money I was told that all money was being put towards their website and that issue with paying employees would be fixed this summer. Being as it is illegal to work without pay I did what I could to stay with them while looking for a new place of employment as the issue with being paid was not making anything easy in terms of bills,

I was only previously acquainted with one person that worked there as they were a friend who helped me get onto the websites staff.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Recently terminated, wasn't paid for 6 months

I was employed there as a permament employee working full-time. I was in fact on their payroll

How do you know you were on their payroll if you never got paid? You have a legal right to a payslip, did they give you payslips and the money just never reached your bank?

And how do you know you were supposed to be a permanent employee to start with? Did you get anything in writing at all? An job offer by email? How were the terms of your employment, hours, salary, duties, etc. explained to you?

Even if there was no written contract of employment, employees have a right to a statement of terms and conditions setting out things like:

• name of the employer i.e. the actual company that employs you, in some cases, one or more companies could be run by the same people under the same roof so you need to know which company you actually work for;
• date employment commenced;
• the job title and job description so you know what your duties are;
• location where you are supposed to work and working hours;
• salary and frequency of pay (monthly, weekly, etc.);
• holiday entitlement

and when I inquired to the location of my money I was told that all money was being put towards their website and that issue with paying employees would be fixed this summer.

How much is owed to you? As you were working full time for six months doing a skilled job, I assume this would run into several thousand. Is the company still trading or have they gone into liquidation?

Being as it is illegal to work without pay I did what I could to stay with them while looking for a new place of employment as the issue with being paid was not making anything easy in terms of bills,

It is not illegal to work without pay, lots of people volunteer in charity shops, CABs, fundraising and other charity work. It is illegal for them to hire you as an employee (as opposed to a volunteer) and not pay you.

You should be able to make a claim for unpaid wages and unpaid holiday paid accrued over those months, either through the Employment Tribunal or the County Court. The ET only deals with people who were employees as opposed to freelancers or self-employed, who can still claim through the County Court (small claims unless amount owed is more than £10k). There are fees payable on both, dependent on the value of the claim. For the ET, you have three months to submit a claim from the last time your employer didn't pay you, presumably your last month with them. You'll find more info about making an ET claim on the ACAS site: http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1889

If the company is insolvent, even if you win your claim you may not get paid, however, you may be able to make a claim to the Insolvency Service, these claims normally have to be done through the liquidators of the company and are capped.

You'll need some evidence that you worked there all that time and did not get paid.

[teaboy2]

Re: Recently terminated, wasn't paid for 6 months

What country was the employer based in?