Big Pizza delievry company expoliting their staff

[epman]

Hi everyone,

 

From last three years I have been working in one of the biggest Pizza home delivery company in the world. I am having some big issues with them and here is the details:

 

I am employed on minimum pay rate

I have been given only 75 pence for doing a delivery on my car. This money is for petrol which I pay and all the ware and tear. According to my calculation we all drivers do in average of 5 miles round trip on our cars and getting paid only 75 pence. Sometimes we do take some deliveries which are far a 16 miles round trip and we get £1.80 for doing 16 miles. I tried to draw my attention to this issue but as this store belongs to a franchise, they are just ignoring the issue. I know if they only increase this to £1.00, it will be millions of £££ at the end of the year. At the end every day we end up paying some cash for the petrol leaving us under pay and huge bills to repair our cars. We are only allowed to take one delivery at a time which is increasing the cost of fuel for us and also cost us 2kg of CO2 per delivery drop.

 

As I mentioned above that I am working here from last 3 years and still I have non training at all. We are talking health and safety, food handling, fire drills. These training are essential for the safety of staff and crew but is ignored because of the costs involved.

 

They are not paying holiday pay for last three months. We are told and it says in contracts that we are anot allowed to take holidays or holiday pay after month of October. I believe that these holidays are hard earned by us and we should get pay for them. They are like a week wages for us but considering they have over 100 stores employing thousands of staff, they all end up not receiving these holiday pay and it goes straight to our employer pockets.

 

They are sacking all UK management staff and employing management staff from Far east countries. Where they were paying over 24000 to a local manger now they are paying around 16000. I have no personal issue with the staff comes from abroad but they are giving an opportunity to this company to start under pay them with a contact of 36 hours but asking them to work 70 hours per week. I have also heard that this staff is paying £350 every month just to keep the contract alive. In past this company was involved in this kind of activity but they just got away with it without anything happen to them.

 

Is there any way to deal this kind of modernized slavery which does exist in UK?

 

Best regards,

 

EPMAN

[san_d]

Is there any way to deal this kind of modernized slavery which does exist in UK?

No, as long as the majority will not see this as slavery but just a sign of the times. The end-user in this country doesn't care if the goods they consume is made by exploited workers, as long it's cheap.

 

Of course in the long run this is like shooting yourself in the foot, but the peasants don't do long term.

[steampowered]

I imagine you would enforce Health and Safety Breaches through complaining to HSE or to the relevant council. Of course you would have to identify the rules which have been breached.

 

There is a right to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year. However my understanding is that the employer can specify when you should take that (i.e. I imagine it can require you to take your leave in the months before October if it gives proper notice). If people are not getting paid for that then the remedy would be to sue for the outstanding amount, and a dismissal for claiming the right to paid leave would be a type of automatically unfair dismissal which does not require two years' service.

 

The 70hour thing will be an issue if the management staff have not opted out of the relevant parts of the Working Time Directive ... but they may well have done. There is nothing illegal with paying them 16k rather than 24k (as long as not below minimum wage).

[Feebee_71]

If you use your own vehicle for business mileage and are not paid at the current HMRC allowed rate (presently 45 pence/mile) then you can complete a claim for Mileage Allowance Relief (MAR).

 

To do this you must record all business mileage, keep records of all payments received and calculate the rate HMRC allows you to claim (45p/mile) then deduct what you receive for mileage. Any sum where you are underpaid using the calculation total mileage x 45p/mile - mileage allowance paid you can make a claim to get tax refunded at 20% of the difference.....

 

Eg: if you did 2000 miles you would multiply 2000 x 45p = £900

Your employer pays you £250 for mileage therefore £900 - £250 = £650

HMRC will refund you 20% of that amount as Mileage Allowance Relief therefore £650 x 20% = £130

 

You can make a claim for just MAR if the total mileage value is under £2500 (so long as you dont need to fill in a self assessment for any other reason), if your mileage is valued higher than £2500 then you will need to complete self assessment.

 

Feebee_71

[Charlotte_Henderson]

Have to ask why would anyone do such a job, if they are having to pay their own petrol?

 

While people are prepaid to do this, this employee will continue to exploit its staff!

[borisbeaver]

I take it you also have business insurance for your car. If not and Mr Policeman stops you, you could lose your car.

[san_d]

Have to ask why would anyone do such a job

As the OP said, it's mostly foreign citizen with dubious work visas or British citizens on the dole and working cash in hand. But then, I'm not sure if we're talking of the same chain.

[transient]

Have to ask why would anyone do such a job, if they are having to pay their own petrol?

 

While people are prepaid to do this, this employee will continue to exploit its staff!

My sister does this in her role as a carer and only gets paid the time she is at a residential address and not the time travelling between nor the waiting time between client appointments. Some people just want to work because that is the way they are and some dont.

[Sidewinder]

Beat me to it Transient!

 

A great many care staff can spend half an hour getting to a job, half an hour getting back and half an hour at a client's address and will only be paid for the time spent actually working - at around £7 an hour (if they are lucky, that is £3.50 for possibly 20 miles worth of fuel and 90 minutes time taken to do the job. Not so much as a penny for mileage, and although it is true that the mileage can be offset against tax, many of these jobs are part time, so the employee isn't paying tax as they are below the threshold, so they get back precisely nothing. Nix. Nada. And who sets the terms and rates of payment for much of the care work? Social Services, aka the Government, via the tendering process that awards contracts for care services to private companies so those that are able to keep costs down get the lion's share of the work.

 

The whole business is scandalous, but people do it because they either have a passion for caring that overrides any sense of financial justice - or as in this case, because one has to work.

[Feebee_71]

HMRC claims for mileage don't have to be offset against tax. If you don't want it added to your tax code you can opt for it to be repaid by cheque - that's what I'm doing this year as icloud do with the cash!!

 

Feebee_71

[Sidewinder]

The claim itself can only be offset against tax, not the means by which any overpayment is paid back to you. Any amount due is a tax 'overpayment'

 

So, if an employee has mileage incurred as a necessary business expense of £30 a week, but earns below the tax threshold, then HMRC have nothing to offset against, so no reimbursement can be made!

 

My wife, for example, incurred expenses of around £1300 in mileage as an essential part of her job. As she earned enough to only pay tax of £300 during the course of the year, the maximum repayment from HMRC is £300 - the remaining £1000 that she spent on mileage is then lost. It matters not whether HMRC send you a cheque or adjust your tax code for the following year - they cannot give you the full amount that you are due unless you have firstly paid more than that amount in tax during the year!

[Feebee_71]

Thanks for clearing that up sidewinder. I wasn't aware that was the case - but I know I've paid more tax than I will get back in MAR!!

 

Feebee_71

[Sidewinder]

No problem - and don't forget to add a claim for laundry to your expenses if you have to wear a uniform for work!

[renegadeimp]

And please dont use one of those 'helper sites' or facebook pages that do it for you. Al you do is fill in a simple form and get the money back. Those sites do it for you and take up to 30% of the claim for themselves.

[dx100uk]

this bit about the employer making employees use their cars for business deliveries worries me

 

is it legal?

dx

[becky2585]

Yes it's legal, provided they have insurance for business use. They should also check the insurance and MOT is valid annually along with the employees counterpart driving license.

[Charlotte_Henderson]

Some people just want to work because that is the way they are and some dont.

 

Totally agree with you, but for some people the petrol out ways the wages.

My husband has a friend who took a job to which he had to pay his own petrol, to and from appointments he left after a month.

 

Why? cos he was paying more out in petrol than he was taking home he wasn't taking home enough to pay his rent etc!

[VoodooChild]

I think I know the company you mean.

 

I have a family member and a friend who work there, and it's an issue for them too. Not only that, but they'll spend 2-3 hours driving around with one order at a time 10-15 mile round trips, and the told to go home at 9.00 because it's quiet.I dread to think how that works out P/H when you take off the cost of petrol and your shifts cut short by 3 hours.

[Charlotte_Henderson]

I dread to think how that works out P/H when you take off the cost of petrol and your shifts cut short by 3 hours.

 

My neighbour used to deliver PT for a well known pizza delivery company, and in her first week paid out £5 more than she earned in petrol.