Individual / Employment
You may be owed money from your employer, which could include holiday pay, salary, commission, bonus, sick pay, overtime payments or redundancy pay.
Sometimes an employer will say that the payments were discretionary or that you are not entitled to payment during any notice period or when your employment has ended. This may be incorrect and you may in fact be owed the wages, even if the written terms state otherwise. For example, when exercising their discretion in paying bonus, an employer has to act reasonably.
There has been extensive case law in relation to the correct calculation of holiday pay which should include payments such as commission and regular overtime payments. Many employees have not been paid holiday pay correctly.
If your employer refuses to pay the money owed to you, you may bring a claim in the Employment Tribunal for unlawful deduction from wages, breach of contract and/or under the Working Time Regulations for holiday pay.
The deadline for recovering wages in the Employment Tribuanl is three months minus one day from when the money was owed and you need to start the ACAS Early Conciliation within this time.
You should collect all relevant documents to support your claim including payslips, your employment contract, any bonus or commission scheme rules and evidence of payments being made on a regular basis.
We can advise you on the different options to obtain payment. This may include:
With extensive experience in advising on wages claims, you can trust that you are in the best hands for achieving the desired outcome. Once we have all the relevant information from you, we can assess the best way forward for you and advise on how to best protect yourself.
To discuss your unpaid wages claims or to find out more information about how we can help, please contact our employment team today on 0161 930 5151 or send us an e-mail to employmentteam@gorvins.com.
Alternatively, you can contact us using our online form.
In most cases, there is a two-year “backstop” on claims for a series of unlawful deductions from wages. However, the rules around what constitutes a “break” in that series are complex. We can review your history to maximize the value of your claim.
An employer can only deduct money if there is a specific written clause in your contract and you signed it before the deduction was made. Even then, “penal” clauses that don’t reflect the actual cost to the employer can often be challenged as unenforceable.
If your company has gone into administration or liquidation, you can claim unpaid wages, notice pay, and redundancy pay from the Insolvency Service (Redundancy Payments Service). There are statutory caps on these amounts, and we can help you navigate the application to ensure you get the maximum allowed.
Absolutely. Following major rulings in recent years, almost all workers (not just “employees”) are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday. If your employer claims you are “self-employed” to avoid paying you, we can help you challenge your employment status to claim your back-dated entitlements.
This is often the most effective tool in our arsenal. It is a formal legal letter from Gorvins to your employer, outlining exactly what is owed and the legal consequences of not paying. Frequently, this is enough to resolve a “wage dispute” without ever needing to step foot in a Tribunal.
Under the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act, employers are legally required to pass on 100% of tips and service charges to staff without deductions (except for tax). If your employer is “skimming” your tips, you may have a specific claim under this legislation.
