Hi guys, Wonder if you could shed some light on this matter. My partner worked (quit two weeks ago) for a contract caterer. His working week was Mon-Fri (40 hours) and he worked an additional 12 hour shift at the weekend, for which he would receive time off in lieu. From September 2008 to September 2009, he worked approx 23 additional days (12 hours per day). By our calculations and adding in his stat holiday pay, he should have received just over 13 weeks holiday. He received only 7.5 weeks holiday. A huge difference. My question is, can we demand that they pay him for the hours that he worked? It was impossible for him to actually take any more time off, they never offered to pay him for the additional hours nor was he offered to role the holiday entitlement over. I know it sounds a little complicated, but thought I would ask you guys first before contacting anyone else. Many thanks

Hi Chiro, It seems they weren't present when the guy checked out the boiler, but she got a call from the agent to say he had looked at it and found no fault. When she got back to the flat, she switched on her heating, the noise started again. They decided to have a look themselves and found the loose screw was the cause of the noise. If I have any kind of issue with my boiler, I immediately contact my landlord as you obviously can't mess around with these things. If a fault is found or not, I have never been charged. I read her tenancy agreement and there is absolutely no mention of charges being applied should someone be called out and it was a false alarm. The landlord is responsible for maintaining the boiler, my colleague believed there was an issue with the boiler as there was a strange noise emanating from it, she did the right thing...called the agent and reported it. We have written to the agents and told them to poke it...lets see what happens next! Many thanks for your input, much appreciated

Hi guys, My colleague has asked me for some advice and I would appreciate any input you may have. She called her agent as there was a strange noise coming from the boiler. The agent sent a maintenance man, he inspected the boiler and found no fault. The noise persisted and when my colleague investigated, she found there was a screw loose on the boiler door and this is waht was causing the noise. She tightened the screw and the noise stopped. Today she received a bill from the agent asking her to pay £50.00 as no fault was found. Obviously she doesn't want to pay...and ideas? Many thanks

Thanks for your continuing interest guys. He has never received a contract nor T&C's. The only thing he was given was a letter confirming his hours of work, that he will work every Monday (supposed to be a day off) and in return he will receive 11 weeks holiday per year. I still do not think that it is acceptable for his employer to deduct a days pay for sickness when in theory he should not have been working that day. He covers on a Monday as a favour to them. For the six weeks prior to Christmas he worked over 60 hours a week for them. He has also never signed anything to agree to work more than 48 hours a week. He has his 'returning to work' interview this afternoon, so we will see what happens as a result of that. Will keep you posted.

Thanks Zingy. Plan to speak to acas for clarification. The problem with the contract is...he doesn't have one. They seem to make it up as they go along. I understand your point on any future illness however, if they have told him he can't work and they won't pay him, I'm afraid he won't be in the position financially to tell them the truth. Perhaps that's something employers should consider? Tell the truth, don't get paid, don't tell the truth and be paid...ridiculous situation really. Thanks for all your advice guys, much appreciated.

Thanks for your response guys. I will contact acas and ask them to clarify the situation. Many thanks

Hi, Hoping someone can shed some light on a couple of issues. My partner works as a chef for a contract caterer in a private school. He is supposed to work Tuesday - Saturday (Mondays off), but has agreed that he will work every Monday and have 11 weeks holiday a year. This Monday he was sick (stomach bug), he was fine after 24 hours, but his employer has told him he has to be clear for 48 hours before returning to work. This means despite being well enough to work on Tuesday, they have told him he can't return till Thursday. He asked his Manager if he can take the sick days as holiday (considering he has 11 weeks a year) and they have told him categorically no...the three days that he has been off will be deducted from his pay. My questions are: 1. As he works a Monday as a favour to the employer, if he was sick that day, shouldn't that be taken as a day off and one day deducted from his holiday entitlement? 2. Despite being fit to work, his employer tells him he can't return to work and they deduct the days they have told him he can't work from his pay, surely this cannot be right? Any advice would be gratefully received Many thanks

Hi, Yes, I believe it is a legal requirement for a Corgi registered engineer to check your gas boiler at least once a year. My landlord writes to me every July to arrange an appointment in August. The engineer checks the boiler, hob, water and gas fire. I then have to sign to say he has inspected everything accordingly, I receive a copy for my records. Hope this helps

Hi, I have just been involved in an Unfair Dismissal claim with my employer. I wasn't claiming but I attended the tribunal. The claimant against us won (quite rightly) as the procedure to dismiss him had not been carried out properly (no surprise there!) He was awarded on the following: Automatic unfair dismissal - approx £1375.00 Loss of earnings - from when he was dismissed until he found another job (in his case it was approx 14 weeks) He was also compensated because he now has to work for his new employer for 12 months to gain his employment rights (not sure of the ins and outs of this) General Compensation He was awarded approx £7.5k, however.... Prior to compensation being awarded, the judge asked us to sit and try and work something out with the claimant. The Judge warned him that if we couldn't come to an agreement, he would need to hear the evidence as to why he was dismissed (gross misconduct) and if the Judge found that he was responsible for his own dismissal, he can retract the compensation upto 100%. He got greedy, wouldn't accept the 4K we offered him, the judge heard the evidence, decided he was 80% responsible for his own dismissal and deducted 80% from his compo. He walked away with just over 2K. Not sure if this helps but good luck with everything

Thanks Surfer1, I agree. There is a strong possibility that she is paying off a debt that does not belong to her. This happened to a friend of mine sometime ago, it was a nightmare to sort out, but she got there in the end. Thanks for the advice guys, very much appreciated.

Thanks for the sound advice comebackjimmy. I will go through the points you raised with her. I will also get her to monitor the meter and post the figures ASAP. Cheers

Hi, Looking for some advice for my colleague. She moved into a new flat in the summer which has a pre-pay meter. Her supplier re-set the meter when she moved in, all good. With the change in the weather, she is currently putting in excess of £60.00 per week on her meter for gas! This is a two bedroom flat which does have high ceilings and is on the seafront, so it is difficult to heat. But as she is at work all day and only uses the heating in the evening, surely this is an outrageous amount of money to be paying? Last night she had to go to bed at 8pm as she just can't afford to be constantly putting money on the meter for gas. Does anyone have any suggestions? Could the meter be wrong? Is it possible she could be paying for a previous tenants arrears despite them telling her the meter had been re-set? Any advice would be appreciated Many thanks

Katkins, Have you considered not going through an agent? If you rented privately through the classifieds in your local paper, a credit check is unlikely to be carried out. A private landlord, perhaps renting out a second home will ask for a previous landlord reference, an employers reference and your months deposit and one months rent in advance. Everyone automatically thinks of going through a letting agent when it is really not necessary. Many private landlords manage the properties themselves, saving on agents commission. I have always rented this way and never had a problem. Word of caution, in my opinion, asking your parents to be guarantors should be a last resort. If you happen to fall into financial hardship, can your parents really afford to bail you out? Try the classifieds, you will have no worries over a credit check. As you are working and can provide an employment reference, you may not need to even tell them you are claiming benefit. It can be paid direct to you and as long as you have a written agreement to show the council, its highly unlikely the council will need to contact them. Hope this helps.

Hi Smiler, No matter what you agree, under no circumstances give these people your card details. Insist on making the first payment and all subsequent payments by standing order. There are too many horror stories of DCA's taking additional payments from accounts via card. And it is a nightmare trying to get anything back from the banks. I strongly advise against giving any DCA your card details, once they have them, they are in control. Standing order is the only way to pay them...you are then in control. Hope this helps

I'm afraid the 'U' word around these parts is the kiss of death! I just have to accept it and it is expected of me. Whilst away on my last holiday, I got 19 phonecalls from clients on the first day! I do explain to them that I am on hols, help them if I can and then they don't bother me...until the next one has a problem or query! We just have to accept that there are certain jobs and certain employers that expect you to be on call 24/7 365 days of the year. If it is a major problem for the OP, he will have to speak to the boss, show him the regs and hope for the best. I don't fancy his chances though. Through experience, the type of people we work for couldn't give a rats hairy a**e, its very much 'its your job, just do it' I truly hope the OP manages to sort it out, clearly its troubling him. I gave up letting it get to me a long time ago. Cheers

I'm afraid you're right, it is a no win situation. If you go to your boss quoting rules and regulations, you know what the answer will be. He has already told you its beneficial to your career if you answer these calls, detrimental if you don't. So pointing him in the direction of the law will be pointless. I'm in the same boat. Sales Manager for a group of hotels. I get calls morning, noon and night. Even when on annual leave, my voicemail directs callers to my mobile, I never get away from it...its the nature of the beast. Two choices really, suck it up and get on with it, or look for a new job...harsh I know, but it is what it is. All the best

Hi, I filled in one of the forms as myself and my oh were on there. We are ex-directory and should not have been on the site. Within 48 hrs of faxing the form, we had been removed. Now when you search in my town, there is no mention of us! Hope this helps Cheers

Hedman, Lots of people in similiar situation. Please pm me and I will give you some info on this. Cheers

You can actually still read your details on the app form. Need to sort that out ASAP Cheers

Hi, Im in the same boat. A Debenhams storecard that changed to a credit card. I have challenged the CCA with the DCA that is now dealing with the account. GE Money sent out credit cards to replace the store cards without issuing a new agreement. In my eyes, this makes the original agreement redundant and I have told the DCA this. A credit card is quite different to a storecard (credit limit, T&Cs etc) therefore the agreement that they are relying on is non-enforceable. It is actually an offence to send an unsolicited credit token as per the CCA act: Part 1V Seeking Business – canvassing etc Prohibition of unsolicited credit-tokens It is an offence to give a person a credit-token if he has not asked for it To comply with subsection (1) a request must be contained in a document signed by the person making the request, unless a credit-token agreement is a small debtor-creditor-supplier agreement Subsection (1) does not apply to the giving of a credit-token to a person (a) for use under a credit-token already made, or (b) in renewal or replacement of a credit-token previously accepted by him under a credit-token agreement which continues in force, whether or not varied Now, GE Money can't say that the card they sent you was a replacement or renewal as it is a completely different beast. I would challenge the enforceability of the agreement. I have and if you would like a copy of the letter I sent to the DCA telling them this, please pm me. I would like to add that the matter has not been resolved. The DCA are saying that I accepted the new card, fair enough, but a new agreement with the new account number, limit, T&Cs should have been issued and it wasn't. Hope this helps.

Hi, Do you still need your Ebay account? If not, ignore Iqor and do not contact Ebay or log into your account (which is prob suspended anyway). I refused to pay their astronomical fee's for an item I sold, got an email every month for about six months, one letter from Iqor, ignored them and they haven't contacted me in over a year. Iqor had added a £10.00 fee also. Hope this helps

Hi, Appalling situation to be in...so sorry that you have this drama with Halifax. Just a thought, but as you didn't have anywhere near the amount of money in your account that was taken, hasn't the company that made off with the £430.00 actually taken the money from the bank and not you? Shouldn't Halifax be reporting the transfer of funds to the police? Afterall, its their money that has been taken...not yours I truly hope you manage to get sorted...go to the local press, they love a story such as yours. Tell Halifax you intend to speak to your local paper..single parent, left destitute over christmas, no food for children etc. You never know, with the bad press they are getting surrently...they may have second thoughts and sort out the mess they have created. All the best x

Vash, People won't help you on this site if you are rude and defensive when offered advice. Ebay can do as they please as it is their site and if they have decided to kick your partner off, its their decision. And as unfair as it is, there is nothing you can do about it. Ebay always protect the buyer. If your partners account is linked to someone who has been selling dodgy goods, he will be kicked out. Thats just the way Ebay work. You can email them until your blue in the face, I can assure you they will not budge. I'm afraid you just have to accept it...as difficult and unjust as it is.

I would love to contact her and advise her on what to do, but I can't run the risk. I have a family to feed and need my job. My boss kept at me to explain the consequences if payment wasn't forthcoming, I had no choice. It was an extremely uncomfortable experience and I do feel for the poor woman, expecially at Christmas time. She did say she would take advice, hopefully someone will help her get it set aside...unfortunately it can't be me

Hi Guys, Just had an absolutely horrible experience and I feel like such a hypocrit. I am employed a chain of hotels and I have just had to meet with a lady who did not pay her bill for an event (almost 2 years ago) and my company have issued her with a CCJ. The lady new nothing about it as she had moved and only discovered it when she applied for something and it flagged up on her credit file. I had to play the bad cop and tell her exactly what would happen if she didn't pay the judgement. Attachment of earnings etc. I felt like such a bully. She didn't know what to do and by her appearance she can ill afford to pay the bill. But I had no choice and had to lay it on the line as my boss was sitting in the meeting also. I felt like screaming 'get it set aside' but I couldn't. I walked away from the meeting, having terrified the life out of her, feeling ashamed and extremely pee'd off with myself. But I had no choice. I never want to go through something like that again...the poor woman.