A little bit of direction please - Self employment problems

[crantinope]

Okay, there are so many things to write, but in a nutshell, just wondered if there was anyone to contact (other than CAB) to help my partner:

I will be as brief as possible using bullet points:

 

There are 3 people working at the salon, a teenage employee, an twentysomething self-employed and my partner.

 

*JUST TO CONFIRM, MY PARTNER HAS NOT YET SIGNED ANY CONTRACT, BUT HER COLLEAGUE WORKS UNDER THE SAME ONE*

Partner went self-employed at a hairdressers on 01/11/13

Was previously an employee there

Was told it would be more beneficial(for both parties)

Received P45, registered as Self-employed with HMRC

Terms were 55/45 split in partners favour, with monthly license fee of £109

 

Now so far so good. Partner had asked other friends about the benefits and was told "you get your money as you go", which was great as no more being paid monthly.

Now Salon owner downloaded a National Hairdressing Federation contract and filled in the dates of Services/License invoice dates and added a few additional bits of info about what was for use and what not in the salon, so still all OK.

Now in that 1st month (yes it was a new experience for partner going self-employed) all payments from clients went into the business till, and at the end of the month the Salon owner basically paid a wage, minus their cut of 45% and the license fee into partners bank account. Now hindsight is a wonderful thing, but that didn't seem quite right to us, so thee following events happened:

I would like this money weekly please as I am now self employed and these are my takings and I pay you your split at the end of the month as per the contract

No, sorry that is not happening, it would be too difficult to do it on a weekly basis, and besides, I am not going to hand over the takings of the business and wait for my payment, what business does that?. This is the normal way it works.

Cue a standoff regarding this and other details of the contract, but in addition to this,

the Salon owner has now realised they are not getting a good enough deal out of the arrangements and now wants to either increase their amount of the split or increase prices, or a combination of the 2

Has put a password on the computer system stopping the 2 self-employed people from not only making any client amendments, but also viewing the daily/weekly earnings totals (on which their payments are based

He originally cited Data Protection blah blah as the reason

Has now given the "employed" 19 year old least experienced member of the 3 the password

Now both my partner and her colleague both have so many issues they need to discuss with someone (National Hair Fed won't talk unless you join for £130), not least, worrying that owner will turn round and say "if you don't like it F*** off, but they both now want to leave but are basically in limbo.

I think the salon owner thought that they would both just take it because they had seen a rise in their money, but there are so many things that are not right:

Technically not his clients to raise prices on

Giving ultimatums on reducing wage

Treating and paying them both as employees

Crossing out the standard half mile radius line in the contract and adding a 2 mile limit on the "setting up elsewhere within 6 months clause" (which incidentally means that the whole town in which we live is excluded (is this unfair contract?)

Now obviously this is sensitive because even though it is clear the salon owner is in the wrong on so many levels, they both don't want to lose jobs over trying to get the right thing sorted (don't forget, my partner has no contract in place".

The did have a meeting with the CAB locally, but they have no one "legal" to help out.

Any help/direction would be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers....Nick

[ploddertom]

Sounds to me as if they are more employed than self-employed. No doubt done to avoid NI Contributions, have you spoken to HMRC as they may take a dim view of the present arrangements.

[ashmk]

Yes, talk to HMRC. This is how some companies get out of not paying sick pay, holiday pay etc and HMRC do not like this. The salon owner will find themselves in trouble.

[julesverne]

have you on an update on this as i would say as above speak to the HMRC as soon as possible as it looks like they are trying to avoid tax. at your partners expense