Quinny:
Asking for a friend.Now I know the ins and outs of the law regarding this, so don’t need the lecture, but has anyone ever taken on their employer over illegal wage deductions, and won?
How did you do it, and what was the eventual outcome?
Ken.
Yes to both. My previous employer was fiddling our holiday pay by having a reduced rate and reduced hours while on holiday. Usually ended up £150 or more down on usual pay (it was a very overtime centric job).
Seen as it’s not actually stated in law that employers have to pay the now almost standard 12 week average for holiday pay there is legal precedent from a few previous cases that have gone to court and won in the past. Things got a little tricky because of it not been stated in law but I hated the way they treated drivers so wanted to take them on just for the sake of it (and the money was nice too).
I ended up getting more out of it than I expected, even made a fancy spreadsheet to calculate every last penny I was owed. As it happens I managed to claim back almost two full years of deductions. Not sure if others are aware but if you have regular illegal deductions less than three months apart you can claim back up to two years. Just so happens that I’d not had a single gap of more than that within my last two years there.
The real kicker for my previous employer was when I shared that spreadsheet and detailed instructions including outline complaint emails with every other driver there. Must have cost them a fortune!
Just to clarify, I walked out of that job by choice before they paid up when I got my current job. Only took one strongly worded email with a deadline and a threat with going to Acas to get them to cough up every penny. If they had treated drivers better it wouldn’t cost them half as much.
Funniest thing was, less than a week after I left everyone was miraculously given a £2p/h pay rise without explanation. They were so scared I’d take the other drivers with me it cost them even more. It was a very well paid job before the pay rise too.
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