no getting paid for work done

[paul rogerson]

hello I need some help please.

 

I have been working for a driving agency for a few months and whilst out one night with friends and family a friend of my auntie who works as a hgv tanker driver for a milk dairy told me if interested he could get me some work as a driver, I said ok and the next day I went with him down to the yard he works at, whilst talking to the manager in the office he asked if I wanted to do this type of work to which I replied yes the then said to comebacin 1 week, go out with a driver on a shift and if I liked it he would start to train me to do the job.

 

1 week later I went with a driver on a run got back to the yard spoke to the manager and told him I would be interested in doing the job, he told me to stay the day and learn the computer system of the milk pump which I did. at the end of the day he told me to come back tomorrow which I did. I spent a total of 9 working days learning the job, and on my way home I checked my mobile phone messages when I received a message saying that he has been told not to take any new employees and not to bother coming back the following day. I telephoned him back to see what this was all about which he explained because the dairy was being bought out by another company the head office said not to employ anyone else, so I asked am I going to be paid for the work I did during learning how to do the job, he said probably not he would check it out, but I haven't heard back or had his calls returned to me.

 

I need to know if this is legal and where I stand.

should the company pay me for the work I did and if so how do I go about getting this from them if they refuse. (its possible they may say they never employed me but I have a digital tachograph card which records details of the wagon I drove of theirs also an anlogue tacho of my last day I drove their wagon).

 

please advise me of where I stand.

[Sidewinder]

Where you stand is that if you can evidence that an agreement existed for you to work in return for wages then you have a contract. The tacho should be sufficient for that purpose, as would the text message(s), but your problem would be around what was agreed by way of wages.

 

In order to force the issue you are almost certainly going to have to go beyond the manager concerned and directly to the company concerned. Write and ask when you might expect to receive payment for the work that you carried out, and if they don't respond, try a Letter Before Action.

 

Ultimately you may need to register a claim with either a Tribunal (which costs) or the County Court (less expensive)

[paul rogerson]

thanks for the reply sidewinder,

 

the message I received was a voicmail message and I don't think I can keep it I need to check that out. also my tacho's some are digital and other or analogue would this be sufficient as evidence for work in return for payment?

 

During my time there non of my details were taken by any of the managers and nothing was signed(i.e. contract of work). basically I just turned up and went off with another driver (to which I drove a majority of the time) am I able to go to a tribunal with only being their 9 working days(two weeks).

[Sidewinder]

You can go to a Tribunal for this with any length of service as it would be a claim under Section 13 of the Employment Rights Act - unlawful Deduction from wages - ie deducting 100% of what was owed. In a County Court it would be for a breach of contract claim.

 

As stated your issues are evidencing the existence of a contract and quantifying the deduction (or damages). In either court their defence would be that 1. No contract existed or 2. That there was no agreement to pay and that you had merely been offered a trial period of unpaid accompanied driving. The tachographs might well be sufficient evidence of having done at least something in one of their vehicles - presumably there would be a record of the vehicle having been used for some purpose that day which would tie in with the data on your chart (I am sure that they weren't just letting any person take a goods vehicle out on the road?). You would also be able to call and cross examine witnesses who might testify that there was an understanding that this was a 'job' which was later withdrawn. Was any rate of pay ever discussed subject to a successful trial run? If you were to lodge a claim it would have to be for some amount, so what would that be and how might you evidence it? A verbal understanding or a reasonable estimate based on the industry going rate?

 

It certainly wouldn't be an easy claim due to the rather woolly nature of a verbal agreement and the lack of anything in writing (or a recording of the voicemail?) so one would hope that a LBA setting out the fact that you completed a trial run, were offered a job by Mr X, completed additional training and were sent out on jobs in their company vehicles might get them to pay you off rather than risk the expense of defending a court action. A claim would be a last resort, and obviously you would have to consider exactly what you would produce to add weight to any claim, but if, say, the manager who offered you the job was forced to admit to the company that there was an offer of paid work, then the letter may be sufficient on its own.

[Emmzzi]

I am unclear as to what point you switched from "job shadowing" to see if you would like the work, and "training."

 

If I am unclear a court may be unclear.

 

What do you think the agreement was?

[paul rogerson]

the point where I went from shadowing was after the first run. driver collects from 17 farms doing it split between 3 runs (6 farms -> depot ->2 farms -> depot -> 9 farms -> depot then finish work for day)

[Emmzzi]

and how would that be obvious to an outsider? (It's not to me, I don't understand the runs thing)

[paul rogerson]

the run is the route that the driver takes to the farms he drives to and collects mile from 6 farms then drives back to the depot where he unloads the milk collected, then he goes back on the road to 2 more farms collects milk drives back to the depot and unloads, then he goes back on the road to 9 more farms collects milk then drives back to the depot where he unloads the milk and washes the wagon then his job is then done.

 

these are called runs there are 3 in total

 

get it now, its not rocket science

[Emmzzi]

get it now, its not rocket science

 

First off, I'm giving my free time and experience to try and help. So please don't insult me.

 

What I do not understand is how going on the runs means you are employed. They look like a one man job to me. Was this the first time you worked alone? If there was still another person there the employer can argue it was shadowing, not work.

 

If you can't explain it clearly to me, you can't explain it clearly to a court. I am trying to help you get a clear, logical story in place!

[ScarletPimpernel]

 

get it now, its not rocket science

 

That sort of response will not endear you to a County Court or Employment Tribunal judge any more than it will to the people who give up their time to help others. If you are asked to explain something, it's because it isn't clear, not because we need a demonstration of your witty repartee.