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Good afternoon,
I have been working part-time as a customer assistant and cashier since february 2017. I am student and I was delighted to find out that I got a job right around the corner from university, even if it was minimal wage paid job I agreed for an immediate start, as it was an opportunity to cover some of the student expenses.
From the beginning I've been told that that I will be given a contract only after a period of "employment", in about April, I had the need for a payslip, this is when the things started to get weird(?) even though I was getting bank transfers(with the net wage, taxes deducted), one of my coworkers told me that officialy we are not working and that our employer keeps the "tax deductions" for herself.
After an informal meeting with other employees we requested to be given printed payslip every payday (My first question, is receiving an official payslip considered to be a confirmation of employment?).
Everytime after this incident when asking for the contract or any other document of employment, my employer was just trying to delay it, or just ignore any questions related to the contract.
Over time, the employer started to impose rediculous and absurd rules work. In November while working alone on the till on a busy evening, someone shoplifted a receantly stocked up box of chocolate bars, after informing the managment I got a call from the employer stating that I am accountable for all the losses caused by the shoplifter ( Is the employer legally allowed to deduct any losses due to theft?), serving on the till and watching 2 screens with 16 cameras covering the whole shop in a busy evening as you can understand is impossible ( Can an employer make me accountable and ask me to be a security guard even if I don't have a license for that?).
The next day in the group chat the employer came up with a new set of rules, even more ridiculous that the previous ones, what do I mean by ridiculous? one of the rules stated that if I am on the till, and there are no customers in the shop and basicaly there is no work for me to be done I won't get paid for the time "I was just standing there", and I am the person who has to keep track of how much time I worked and how long "I was just standing there", there were some other rules like if you work for 6 hours you are entitiled a 5 minute unpaid break, and for 8 hours shift a 10 minute unpaid break, before that all the break were paid.
That was the moment I decided it's the time for me to leave. I wrote her a message stating that I do not agree with the new rules and I don't want to work in such humiliating conditions thus I am willing to quit the job ASAP, this seemed to backfire and trigger(?) the employer as she said that she will go back in time watch the cctv and deduct all the breaks and all the time I didn't work from my wage, my answer being that she can not impement the new rules with a back date.
A series of accusations, intimidations and even threats followed, from the employers side. To what all this story was going, today was the payday, yesterday I have received my payslip (51 hr, 7.05/h), in the deduction section she included til error ( 60.59£), before she would attach reports from the till computer as evidence for any deductions, this time she didn't, the cost of stolen box of chocolates was aproximately worth this amount +/- 2£ , the difference between the total wage and the till error deduction was included as well in the deduction section (298.96£) as ADV recovery thus making the the total net pay 0.00£, I have not taken any money in advance as she is stating on the payslip, and as stated by gov.co.uk no deductions should be made with out my agreement ( with a few exceptions which do not apply to this case), any deductions made should be accompanied by a detailed description on the payslip or a separate sheet, which I never got.
After trying to get in the contact with the employer I realised that she just blocked my number. What are the right steps to be done in this situation? Should I make an employment tribunal claim?
Thank you in advance for your time and help.
I have been working part-time as a customer assistant and cashier since february 2017. I am student and I was delighted to find out that I got a job right around the corner from university, even if it was minimal wage paid job I agreed for an immediate start, as it was an opportunity to cover some of the student expenses.
From the beginning I've been told that that I will be given a contract only after a period of "employment", in about April, I had the need for a payslip, this is when the things started to get weird(?) even though I was getting bank transfers(with the net wage, taxes deducted), one of my coworkers told me that officialy we are not working and that our employer keeps the "tax deductions" for herself.
After an informal meeting with other employees we requested to be given printed payslip every payday (My first question, is receiving an official payslip considered to be a confirmation of employment?).
Everytime after this incident when asking for the contract or any other document of employment, my employer was just trying to delay it, or just ignore any questions related to the contract.
Over time, the employer started to impose rediculous and absurd rules work. In November while working alone on the till on a busy evening, someone shoplifted a receantly stocked up box of chocolate bars, after informing the managment I got a call from the employer stating that I am accountable for all the losses caused by the shoplifter ( Is the employer legally allowed to deduct any losses due to theft?), serving on the till and watching 2 screens with 16 cameras covering the whole shop in a busy evening as you can understand is impossible ( Can an employer make me accountable and ask me to be a security guard even if I don't have a license for that?).
The next day in the group chat the employer came up with a new set of rules, even more ridiculous that the previous ones, what do I mean by ridiculous? one of the rules stated that if I am on the till, and there are no customers in the shop and basicaly there is no work for me to be done I won't get paid for the time "I was just standing there", and I am the person who has to keep track of how much time I worked and how long "I was just standing there", there were some other rules like if you work for 6 hours you are entitiled a 5 minute unpaid break, and for 8 hours shift a 10 minute unpaid break, before that all the break were paid.
That was the moment I decided it's the time for me to leave. I wrote her a message stating that I do not agree with the new rules and I don't want to work in such humiliating conditions thus I am willing to quit the job ASAP, this seemed to backfire and trigger(?) the employer as she said that she will go back in time watch the cctv and deduct all the breaks and all the time I didn't work from my wage, my answer being that she can not impement the new rules with a back date.
A series of accusations, intimidations and even threats followed, from the employers side. To what all this story was going, today was the payday, yesterday I have received my payslip (51 hr, 7.05/h), in the deduction section she included til error ( 60.59£), before she would attach reports from the till computer as evidence for any deductions, this time she didn't, the cost of stolen box of chocolates was aproximately worth this amount +/- 2£ , the difference between the total wage and the till error deduction was included as well in the deduction section (298.96£) as ADV recovery thus making the the total net pay 0.00£, I have not taken any money in advance as she is stating on the payslip, and as stated by gov.co.uk no deductions should be made with out my agreement ( with a few exceptions which do not apply to this case), any deductions made should be accompanied by a detailed description on the payslip or a separate sheet, which I never got.
After trying to get in the contact with the employer I realised that she just blocked my number. What are the right steps to be done in this situation? Should I make an employment tribunal claim?
Thank you in advance for your time and help.
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