Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Pathos]

Basically, I'm from the North-West of England. My girlfriend works at a Dominos for the legal time at her age ( she's 16 ). Before this, however, she was forced to work MUCH longer shifts on many more days than she really should've been, and she was 15 at the time. That stopped after I sent an anonymous complaint to the head office about the franchise, for obvious reasons. She's also paid under minimum wage ( £3.50/hour instead of £3.57/hour ) and rarely, if ever, gets paid on time. She's still in full time education, and he's taxed her once ( whilst she was still 15 ) and refused to give her the taxed money on the basis that he'd have to fill in forms about it.

Her father works at the same shop as a second job as a driver. He has the same problems in regards to getting paid on time, as do many in the shop. There also seems to be a massively disparate gap in terms of pay, with some ( doing the same job as my girlfriend ) getting paid upto about £5/hour.

The manager himself is ill educated, allows his wife to randomly come in the shop and harangue employees because she has nothing better to do and will fire anyone who questions anything he does. Some of them can only get this job and this is their ONLY job.

Now, they're considering quitting for all this, and I was wondering if it'd be possible for them to put in some complaint or petty claims suit ( possibly a class action suit with the other employees, although it's doubtful they'd join in for fear of being fired ) which they could benefit from. There is no way to convince this man to give them the cash they deserve, otherwise, and Dominos head office really don't care about what happens in this cold corner of the UK.

So, TL;DR:
- My girlfriend is being used as child slave labour, getting paid under minimum wage and was forced to work upto 48 hours a week due to fearing getting fired.
- People do not get paid on time and can barely afford to pay their rent / get fed.
- Massive differences in pay between employees for no reason.
- The manager is a lazy fucker who will fire anyone at a moment's notice since he can easily get others.

And, I want to know if it's possible for them to enter a complaint / petty or small claim lawsuit and make money off this.

Thank you in advance.

[Idiom]

fire anyone at a moment's notice since he can easily get others.

Here's where I say something about population levels being relevant to distribution of social classes.

she was forced to work MUCH longer shifts on many more days than she really should've been, and she was 15 at the time. That stopped after I sent an anonymous complaint to the head office about the franchise, for obvious reasons. She's also paid under minimum wage ( £3.50/hour instead of £3.57/hour ) and rarely, if ever, gets paid on time. She's still in full time education, and he's taxed her once ( whilst she was still 15 ) and refused to give her the taxed money on the basis that he'd have to fill in forms about it.

That one is a valid complaint but I'm not sure about what qualifies for legal action in Europe. You might spend more money on the legal action than it's worth.

There is no way to convince this man to give them the cash they deserve, otherwise

Unions!

[Pathos]

Unions!

They're considering it, but the power of Unions has been broken ever since the General Strikes. Police were basically given the ability to do whatever the hell they liked as long as it broke the strike.

[jvempire]

How exactly is it child slave labor?, I mean she can just quit the job if she thinks they are exploiting her and file a complaint. They probably are paying low wage and need to work longer because they are running out of business anyways.

[Grakelin]

If they can't afford to pay her the proper wages, they'll have to lay somebody off and decrease their costs. Why does the manager even think hiring more people at extremely low costs will do anything, anyway? If they're not getting as much business, they're not selling as many pizzas, and the extra labour is wastage. I learned this in first year Accounting and Financial Management.

Can the manager read a financial statement? Does he actually own this franchise, or is he working for a franchise investor?

I've seen lots of stupid people running franchise stores in small towns. Sadly, I've never seen anybody do anything. Your girlfriend is better off trying to find another job, in my opinion, though I don't know her whole situation, so it's really up to her to make an informed decision.

If the police are corrupt enough in your small town to break up a striking union at a local Dominos, maybe you should all just move.

[Frelock]

How exactly is it child slave labor?, I mean she can just quit the job if she thinks they are exploiting her and file a complaint.

That's probably what people in the 1800's said about children in the coal mines.

That said, I'm no expert on UK law.  However, it may be possible to get the manager cited for the minimum wage violation, and possibly the wages withheld.  Probably won't get any money out of it, though, and it might get a lot of people fired.  With things the way they are, you know somebody will take the crappy job.  Sadly, there's nothing you can do about the lazy manager or the massive pay differences; it's kinda universal in most workplaces (though maybe that's just because people often tell me how much they hate their jobs...)

[Azkanan]

Step One: Voice recordings of him acting out of turn / Video Recordings of the same.
Step Two: Evidence that she's been working for X months and recieved X money, then do the work-outs on pay she has recieved.
Step Three: Any additional evidence you can gather against the boss.

What to do with the evidence
Either;

a. Threaten the pizza place subtly that if they don't take action, you'll take it to the police.
b. Go straight to the police with allegations of Child Slave Labour.

If the police don't do anything, contact your local lawyer peoples.

===========

OR

Be English and get used to it, because that's how us lower-class English are treated, in and out, for the rest of our lives.

[scrutator]

What your employer is doing is illegal. Most obvious example is the working time directive and minimum wage. Also, possibly number of hours and type of job your girlfriend had. Take a look at the below for a fuller explanation.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/YoungPeople/Workandcareers/Yourrightsandresponsibilitiesatwork/DG_174530

Heres a gov helpline that can give legal advice on your situation and what action is available.

http://payandworkrightscampaign.direct.gov.uk

Have a read, and if you think the employer is not legally complying, then I would consider filing a claim in the magistrates/small claims court. Since it seems that your employer isnt being reasonable and careful regarding the law, I would hesitate to confront them as they'll probably brush it off or threaten you back.

Regarding your girlfriends case, if it turns out he is in breach of the law, she will definitely be able to claim back the extra wages she owed. The employer will probably also get hit with a fine(s). Also, if anyone is fired, they may be able to claim for unfair dismissal. Theres something about that in the second link above.

Hope this helps.

[Virex]

Problem may be for many workers that such legal action can put them at odds for finding a new job, because low-wage companies generaly arn't to eager to hire people who talk to much. I wouldn't expect too much of the other employees.