Hi, and thanks for your help and advice. I know more about the finances than any of the committee because I have always been the one left holding the fort when they all resign. I've dealt with everything and kept the place afloat including sorting out all the bills and running myself into the ground. I've had two pubs previous to this job so I know how everything works, I thought being a club steward would be easy but all the crap from committees not doing their job makes it hard work. The club can't run without a committee so that's why I put up with all the grief, yes, to keep myself in work. All the members want to do is come in and drink, then go home - they all know the situation but don't want to get involved and help out. They don't understand that it's supposedly 'their club', none of them want to be on committee probably because they don't understand what they're supposed to do, and they can't be bothered to put the effort in to learn what it's all about and make it count. The questions I have now that it's all sunk in a bit more are: What am I entitled to if I do what they want, which is shut it down then we can all forget about it and not be hassled. Do they need to give me written notice? Do they need to pay me in lieu of notice if it's going to close sooner than the notice period? Do I get redundancy as well as a period of notice? They want me to walk away and take what's in the safe - the bloke leading it all says he'll sign for me to take whatever's in the safe, but I can't do it that way, they'd say I've run off with the takings and deny they ever signed anything. What happens to all the stock behind the bar and in the cellar? What do I do with the keys to the place - I can hardly give them to the committee cos if the club shuts i've left the stock and the building in their hands and everything will disappear. Thanks

Hi This is my first post, so please bear with me and I'll try to explain the situation. I am a steward at a social club and have been in the job for almost 4 years. The club is supposed to be run by a committee, there is no business owner as such and we are registered with the Friendly Society (as most social clubs are to my knowledge). There is supposed to be a President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and at least 4 committee members - all have a part to play in running the club (collectively) and making decisions for the benefit of the club. I am the only employee, committee members are voluntary - people who use the club regularly. Over the 4 years, not one person has remained on the committee long enough to sort anything out. There have been 6 committees in the last 4 years, all have fallen out with each other and resigned. I am the only static person at the club, and I'm the only 'employee'. The Treasurer resigned 2 years ago due to ill health - she was the only person who took any responsibility for anything and after she left it was all left to me. At this point I appealed to the members of the club to form a new committee if they wanted to keep the club open, the alternative was to close the club for good - and I would have been out of a job. A group of people formed a new committee and things started to get sorted. My priority was my pay, tax and NI - no-one knew how to work it out - so one of the committee got to the bottom of it all and has worked my pay out, tax & NI from that date to this. In doing so, she discovered that PAYE was in arrears by 3 months with HMRC. The club had never made a lot of money, it just ticked over. Because there was only me (the steward) who understood the running of the place, I worked with two of the committee to sort all the finances out, pay the bills and generally led the way with it all. Shortly after, the committee fell out again and resigned - leaving me and two committee people to run the place. We struggled to pay all the bills, there wasn't enough money coming in. Everything got into arrears including PAYE (mine), I was owed holidays at the end of the year because if I took time off there was no-one to run the place in my absence, I am owed £2,300 in unpaid holidays to date. In January I brought all this to the attention of the members and again a group of people volunteered to form a new committee. This new committee were supposedly working on publicity to bring in money, but it turned out that after looking at the books, their intention was to close it down as the debt couldn't be paid, and keeping it open would only run up more debt. The secretary and a trustee have tried to force me out, have threatened me verbally and have done everything possible to get me to walk out - but I can't do that as I have a family to support. There are no other jobs out there, i've been looking for months - I'm approaching 50 so that's against me. And if I walk out I doubt I'll be able to claim any benefits - so what do I do? I don't want to be out of work, there's no money to pay me any redundancy, and no-one in a position to sort any of it out. The secretary has now resigned. The president say's he's got too much on in his own life and does absolutely nothing towards sorting anything out. The treasurer hasn't got a clue how to do the books and hasn't done them for 4 months. If I didn't turn up everyday the place wouldn't open, I have all the keys - but if I don't turn up then I've walked out haven't I? What on earth to do? thanks messy.com