Hi all I worked for a small company and I was making a delivery on a farm I was going down a track when my lorry got stuck so I askes the farmer to pull me out with his tractor and I ended up in a drainage ditch up to my axle the only thing that broke on my lorry was the plastic bit on the bottom of my step anyway I got laid off and my boss said he was keeping my last pay to pay for the damage when I got the job he didn’t say if any damaged caused I would have to pay so can he keep my last pay or not sorry for spelling lol any help would be great I am a fairly new driver and don’t really know where I stand many thanks
what does your contract say?
Me, I’d be heading over to the CAB
I didn’t have one I was only their 3 weeks when it happened
then get yourself along to the CAB sharpish
Cheers I am going today
Has anybody els had a similar sort of issue with a employer
I was once an employer in a different trade, I caught a staff member stealing cash and stock, Even though I had him on camera thieving every day for a month, I could not deduct anything from his wages due to him.
Get legal advice and sue his arse off
Send him a polite letter, reminding him that it is illegal to withhold any part of your wages, other than those deductions required by law (tax etc) unless agreed by you. If he fails to do this, point out that you will have no option other than placing the matter in the hands of your sdolicitor.
If he feels you should pay for the damage, he has to claim it back through the court, but it’s unlikely to succeed. That’s what insurance is for, after all.
I thought that he couldn’t withold it just wanted to make sure before I Went ahead with anything I didn’t agree when I started the job I would pay for damages and I said to him also that is what insurance is for
Driver-Once-More:
what does your contract say?
It doesn’t matter. It is illegal to withhold pay or to make deductions without the express consent of the employee.
No need for CAB, just write a letter demanding the last week wage plus outstanding holiday pay giving him 7 days to pay or if he doesn’t you’ll take court action to recover the money. If he still doesn’t pay send a “letter before action” letter again outlying the amount and giving 5 working days to pay cleared funds into your account or you’ll begin proceedings. If he still doesn’t pay then file a claim online.
moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome
Think its £35 which gets added to your claim. If he doesn’t turn up you win automatically and the company gets a CCJ. That doesn’t look good for an operators O license.
Why are so many employers reluctant to just “sack” someone, and ■■■■■■ them from the yard, rather than “get rid of them on some pretence”, even though they’d not be liable to redundancy monies etc. for someone only there a short time?
Back in 1985, I worked as a barman for a while (a holiday camp, easter season) and a couple of staff got caught with their hands in the till on two seperate occasions… They were sacked on the spot, escorted off the site, and told they’d be getting no pay for “work already done”.
A week after Easter, it seemed like everyone was getting sacked for any old reason… Smoking in the toilets, being caught in the LIAF chalet provided with gear, shouting at supervisors - even being caught inside someone else’s chalet (lots of midnight liasions going on!) after 11pm… Then, I got told “I’m out” on my very last day, because “the till was short last night” and that “If I objected, my last pay would be withheld”. Well, it was the end of the season anyways, and I just wondered why they didn’t just tell me “my contract isn’t going to be renewed for the summer season” instead of giving me all that bully… There was no question of the till shortage NOT being down to me they reckoned, ‘since my till partner was a senior full time regular rather than a seasonal worker like me’.
A couple of weeks later, I hadn’t yet been paid for that last week. I phoned the gaffer, and he re-instated my pay no quibble, so I thought no more about it. I was going to blow up in his face over “theft of my last pay packet” etc. as you might imagine if he had tried fobbing me off at that point. 6 months after that, I bumped into one of the other middle-management guys at a shopping centre. He told me that “Your till partner had been caught red handed, and sacked about 6 days after you had left… That’s why you had your wages re-instated no quibble when you phoned in that time”… 
I never did get any kind of official apology from the firm, but since I didn’t lose any money out of it, I didn’t take it any further - but it did make me more aware of the “employer skullduggery” that can happen out there, as I was a wet-behind-the-ears 19 year old at the time. 
I once took a company van home,then I quit, and kept it for almost a week, until my last pay cheque cleared to my account, boss was very laid back about wages being paid on time, until he didn’t have his van, he turned up with his long haired supervisor who tried to intimidate me, then had the police round to my house, they buggered off- civil matter.
Best one though was Nigel, sold his franchise for Aldershot Business Post, gave all the staff a letter thanking us for all our hard work, mine had an additional note, ‘Your final pay has been docked £50 for a missing computer monitor’, that went missing about four months previously, I hadn’t even checked it onto my van, let alone lose it, he was due to get married a few weeks later, so phoned him at home and threatened to play the bagpipes in just a kilt outside the church when he was getting married, he duly paid up.
Winseer:
Why are so many employers reluctant to just “sack” someone, and ■■■■■■ them from the yard, rather than “get rid of them on some pretence”, even though they’d not be liable to redundancy monies etc. for someone only there a short time?Back in 1985, I worked as a barman for a while (a holiday camp, easter season) and a couple of staff got caught with their hands in the till on two seperate occasions… They were sacked on the spot, escorted off the site, and told they’d be getting no pay for “work already done”.
A week after Easter, it seemed like everyone was getting sacked for any old reason… Smoking in the toilets, being caught in the LIAF chalet provided with gear, shouting at supervisors - even being caught inside someone else’s chalet (lots of midnight liasions going on!) after 11pm… Then, I got told “I’m out” on my very last day, because “the till was short last night” and that “If I objected, my last pay would be withheld”. Well, it was the end of the season anyways, and I just wondered why they didn’t just tell me “my contract isn’t going to be renewed for the summer season” instead of giving me all that bully… There was no question of the till shortage NOT being down to me they reckoned, ‘since my till partner was a senior full time regular rather than a seasonal worker like me’.
A couple of weeks later, I hadn’t yet been paid for that last week. I phoned the gaffer, and he re-instated my pay no quibble, so I thought no more about it. I was going to blow up in his face over “theft of my last pay packet” etc. as you might imagine if he had tried fobbing me off at that point. 6 months after that, I bumped into one of the other middle-management guys at a shopping centre. He told me that “Your till partner had been caught red handed, and sacked about 6 days after you had left… That’s why you had your wages re-instated no quibble when you phoned in that time”…
I never did get any kind of official apology from the firm, but since I didn’t lose any money out of it, I didn’t take it any further - but it did make me more aware of the “employer skullduggery” that can happen out there, as I was a wet-behind-the-ears 19 year old at the time.
How come I never saw ouwt like that happening on Hi Di Hi? 
Which part? 