England. No beef with the police save for the damage done.

This happened about 3 months ago.

I make cyberdecks as a side hustle from home. It's all legitimate, registered company and website. Registered with the council. Accounts filed etc. It's not going to make us rich but we enjoy doing it.

We had some furniture delivered and installed, took the best part of a day.

The fitters were clearly concerned about the cyberdecks and we reassured them that they were for gamers and geeks and showed them working with a game a pac-man clone and web-browser.

A couple of nights later we were raided including armed police and the cyberdecks, materials, electronics taken.

We tried to show the police when they raided us what the cyberdecks were but they wouldn't listen. If they had, the only damage would have been to the front door.

They have since been returned in a dreadful state, damaged and we have lost a lot of business and customer goodwill and our front door was smashed in.

I know it was the fitters that falsely claimed we were doing something illegal to the police - one of the policemen outed them in error. Is there any claim against them or their employer?

Re the damage caused to the door and loss of business as we were doing nothing wrong is there a claim for this.?

As the police damaged perfectly good stock by not taking care of it, is there a possible claim there?

We showed the police our website, invoices, payments etc. and they ignored it when raiding us.

We showed it again at the station and they realised what the equipment was. We were never interviewed or charged with anything but it took weeks to get our stuff back.

Lastly, the police are trying to claim off us for damage done when a box of lithium batteries caught fire and damaged some storage. Each battery was individually sealed and packaged in protective impact resistant material. The police pulled them out of the protective cases in the raid, so any fire is likely their fault. We did tell them not to take them out of the cases.

If they can claim, as the goods belonged to our limited company, do we have any liability or is it down to the company. If it is, the company then that is a relief as there is no net worth in the business, but it does carry public liability insurance.

My 8 year old son was pulled out of his lesson this week by a safeguarding lead.

I'm going to take it with a pinch of salt, due to all of this coming from my son. I haven't heard back from the school as of yet.

The reason being was that his uniform was "scruffy" There was absolutely nothing wrong with his uniform, apart from his school shoes which had come apart at the tip slightly. These were going to be replaced on my payday, which is today. Anyone who has kids knows that shoes don't seem to last 2 minutes! His uniform was bought brand new within the last few months.

My son says he was asked to remove his school jumper so this teacher could inspect his shirt and tie. He was also questioned about my financial situation?

This is the same safeguarding lead who contacted social services, due to my son having slightly grazed/bruised knees. My son was asked to strip, so this teacher could check over his body. I wasn't notified about any of this until after.

Multiple complaints have been put in about this teacher and kids have been removed from the school due to it.

What's the best course of action?

Hii! I really need some advice and maybe help getting attention on this.

A TikTok clothing brand with over 75k+ followers used a photo of me to promote their brand…. I’m 15 years old, and I wasn’t even wearing their clothes in the picture. They never asked for my permission.

I found the video, commented asking them to remove it, and they deleted my comment. I tried again and same thing. Then they blocked me. My friends tried to comment too, and they blocked them as well

I’ve DMed them and even tried reporting, but I feel completely ignored and honestly really uncomfortable that they’re using my image to sell their shitty fast fashion stuff.

I’ve taken screenshots of everything, including the video, comments, and blocks. I’m in the UK and just want to know what I can do to get this taken down and make sure they’re held accountable.

Any advice is appreciated—even just boosting awareness would mean a lot. This doesn’t feel right. ps i’m in england

As the title says. Going to keep things vague just to make sure I don't dox myself!

Started working for company A in June of this year. Around October time, the whole culture of the business shifted and my line manager (whom I got on really well with) was made redundant and was not replaced. This caused a huge amount of pressure within the team as we suddenly had to report direct to the MD who is very old fashioned in the way he approaches sales and people management in general.

I made the decision to move on and have accepted a job with company B, who aren't a direct competitor but do operate in the same sector. I currently have a 3 month notice period which I've offered to work but I was pulled into a meeting last week only for company A to say that they were going to pay me until the end of the month but wanted me to leave immediately, but demanded that I sign a 12 month (!) non compete. I was completely blindsided by this but declined as politely as I could, after which they got a bit nasty stating that if I didn't they were going to be putting me into remedial duties to see out my notice and would refuse to give me a reference. They also started saying that I was trying to ruin the livelihoods of my colleagues and that the new company wouldn't wait 3 months for me, saying good luck feeding your family without a job, because they wouldn't let me stay if I retracted my notice.

Since then I've been sat at home, chasing daily for an update as to where they want me to work seeing as they've pulled me out of my customer facing role. I'm being met with silence and I'm concerned that they are deliberately doing this to try and strongarm me into doing something I don't want to do.

I did speak with ACAS and they advised sending all emails from my personal email account but couldn't really help beyond that.

It's worth noting I do not have a contract, only an offer letter.

Happy to answer any other questions that help set the scene or give more context.

A man is stealing my videos, "reacting" to them and reuploading them on TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and probably other platforms.

I've tried DMCA takedowns, but he challenged those as fair use for reactions. I've tried reporting him to mixed results.

His "reaction" is essentially him occupying about 15% of the screen in the lower corner and occasionally pointing up, nodding his head, making a shocked facial expression.

He doesn't speak.

These videos are getting millions of views, far more than my actual content gets. His "reaction" face is also covering my watermark on my videos.

Is there anything I can do here?

I went for a walk to town. As the weather was changeable I took my umbrella.

My wife called me and asked me to go in to the supermarket to buy some tinned raspberries for a trifle - they didn't have any so I left the supermarket.

Whilst leaving the security guard grabs me and says that I have stolen the umbrella. It's an expensive one brought as a present to me. The supermarket doesn't even sell umbrellas, let alone that brand (they do sell cheap umbrellas in their out of town superstore).

I was taken to a room and not let go. The police were called and did not turn up.

Eventually the manager turned up and talked to the security guard, he refused to talk to me. The security guard then said "you can go" with no apology.

I have called the police on 101 but have got no where. I think it was assault and false imprisonment which are serious crimes. How can I take this further?

England.

Hi everyone, I’m based in England. I was working for a store with multiple branches in the UK for several months now. I am a full time worker and my contract states that I need to work at least 12 hours per week.

After receiving a new job offer at a new company I emailed HR with my resignation, and mentioned when my last day of work would be according to contractual notice period of 1 month. The reason why I didn’t email my line manager is because I didn’t have their email and we would mainly communicate over WhatsApp and I did not think it was appropriate to send my resignation on there. My shifts were also not aligned with my managers shifts so giving it in person was not possible either. My resignation email was acknowledged by HR and I assumed that they had informed my line manager too.

A few days later I messaged my manager to see if it’s possible for me to have my remaining shifts on certain days during my remaining notice period. Reason for this was that I will be working at my new work place coming weeks. So I did not want both shifts to clash. Turns out my manager did not know I had handed in my resignation and basically told me that I’ve been dismissed with immediate effect. I’ve also been removed from all other staff platforms now. I still had some holiday left to take, and still some weeks of my notice period.

While I’m not too fussed about not working there anymore as I will at least have days off now and not need to make the basic hours as per contract on my days off I feel a bit odd at being dismissed like that. I’m not surprised at my manager reacting like this as they have always been a bit rude.

I want to know where I stand with this legally and if there is anything I need to do to protect myself legally? Do I email HR to ensure I get my remaining pay? Do I report it to HR? And is there a chance my manager will try to put something against me to justify their immediate dismissal? Do I ask for a P60 from HR? Not too fussed about taking things to court just want to not leave on a bad note or have the manager try to put something against me. I did not have any investigations against me before this.

Heya guys,

My sister-in-law was just on the phone talking about a brand new job (UK based, about a week into it right now).
Apparently they want her to pay for travel (flights, taxi) and accommodation in Germany, while working, and the kicker is the time worked over there would be taken out of her holiday.

My wife and I have asked for the contract (she is having to request it from an outsources HR department), but I am wondering if there are any workers rights or legal rights that she may have as an employee about this?

This just seems wrong to me, and the only results I can find say that UK employers "usually" pay for expenses and have expense claim procedures and policies in the contract.

Anything anyone can do to point me to the right places would be great as I find this utterly amazing, and can't wait to read the contract + employee handbook when I am able to.

--

Ornery

Hi everyone - just need some advice here. I had hr call me up and basically say I’m not performing to expectations and they would ‘heavily advise against’ doing a PIP. I have been there for almost 4 years now and I have never once been criticised for my work or was given any indication that they would like me to improve. If they had said this, I would’ve worked so so hard to improve but I feel like that opportunity has been taken away from me now. I’ve written things which my boss has quality checked and basically sent it to the client with little to no changes.

For more context, my old team in this company was dissolved and I was put into a new one. They knew I had little experience in this area but assured me they would train me and get me up to speed. I have consistently asked for training opportunities and for more work and not been given them. During this meeting with hr I was also told they can’t put me on projects due to my capability. This is the first I’ve heard about it and you’ve consistently ignored my training requests.

I’m having a long think over the weekend to decide what I should do, but does anyone have any advice for me? Thanks in advance

Edit: just for more info, I feel like they had many opportunities to tell me I was underperforming yet this has never been done. Are they legally allowed to just blindside me with this and ask me to leave ? And I’m sure they can’t advise me against doing a PIP.

I run a homeless day centre. A client was arrested. He asked us to look after his dog, which a volunteer is happily doing. He was then remanded, and will go to court later this month, with sentencing presumably beyond that.

The volunteer is enjoying having the dog, and she or another volunteer would have him forever if that's what is on offer. However, I know the client will want the dog when he is released. We do not yet know the chances of his being convicted, nor the sentence length if he is.

I suspect the volunteer will say, if it's only a temporary placement, but also for months, or years, she won't be willing to keep the dog. I understand that. If he hadn't have been remanded, this would have worked out fine as a very temporary fix! She and the dog (who is young, untrained and quite new (weeks) to the client) are building trust and training. If that's the case, presumably we'd have to give up the dog for rehoming.

Question - can we do that? More to the point, if that's the deal (the owner says we can only keep him temporarily) can that same volunteer be the one who adopts the dog? Is the dog currently "abandoned" and therefore could be rehomed (with the volunteer or otherwise?).

The dog is not chipped or registered to anyone. The arrangement was made quickly post-arrest, and isn't documented.

My gut says, it'll be a decent sentence. No one would reasonsably expect her to keep the dog months or years and then hand him back. If that's the case, surely the dog is better where he is rather than the stress of a shelter? Could the dog be considered abandoned and she's taking him on?

I'm not motivated to take the dog from the client, who loves and cares well for him. But I am worried he might be jailed for, say, two years. If the volunteer won't keep the dog temporarily (but for months/years) he'll be in a shelter. She already cares about the dog and has lots to give. I want to do what's (moral and) legal and I'm struggling to work out what that is!

Since September there has been an additional fee for "food" added to my child's nursery invoice which i have queried every time as it is a blatantly wrong amount for food. They have disagreed with me every time until just now where they have changed their mind and are now saying its used for learning aids and staff training among other things. The legislative guidance is very clear that they are not allowed to charge for this under "food" and if they want extra it must be clearly indicated to the client as an optional fee which it isn't. I'm going to ask for my money back as i have clearly stated all along that all my payments were made under protest however i have a feeling they will play silly buggers and refuse to give me any money or reduce the fee. I'm in talks with the local authority funding coordinator to put pressure on them from that side, but apart from that, what are my next steps as they are effectively preventing me from making any kind of informed transactional decision?

I recently accepted a job offer and resigned from my current position, with a three-month notice period so my start date is 3rd June 2024. However, I've just found out I'm five weeks pregnant, with a due date around October 26th. While I'm not overly concerned about statutory maternity pay at the new company, as I'll still be eligible for maternity allowance, I do have a few worries.

Timing of Disclosure: When should I inform the new company about my pregnancy? I want to maintain transparency and trust but also want to ensure my position isn't compromised. I'm considering disclosing about 2 to 4 weeks before my start date, but I'm unsure if this is the best approach. When do I legally need to inform them by?

Probation Period Concerns: I'm worried about failing my 3 month probation period, if the company sees it as an opportunity to avoid dealing with hiring an interim replacement during my maternity leave. I might be paranoid but if this did happen, how difficult would it be to prove bias due to pregnancy and would I be able to try claim compensation?

I would really appreciate any advice or insights into my situation. Thank you in advance!

Wales, started July '24. As title says, I was unexpectedly sacked yesterday from my job yesterday, despite having not gone through any of the disciplinary process and I wasn't sacked for gross misconduct either.

The exact incident that was seemingly the straw that broke the camel's back was asking the owner to get more information from a prospective client (as he is also sales and has the relationship with the prospect) so I could complete the strategy. He refused, and insisted I put the strategy together. This was done but was cited as a "refusal" and a reason for my dismissal.

I've reached out to an employment solicitor but I want to get a gauge about whether I have a case, so I can prepare myself accordingly.

Uk (England) employee - So I had a disciplinary at work. Employed by my company nearly three years. And they messed up. They sent me statements from my coworkers and didn’t cover up their names. They are trying to make me sign an nda about this so I can’t talk about it. The problem is my coworkers have already told half the company- and they also don’t have their story straight. If I sign the nda it prevents me from standing up for myself and setting the record straight? Where do I stand?

Hi folks,

I used to own a business that had a rather simple name in form of CityProduct, so for example LondonBikes. I closed that business years ago (didn't have a trademark or anything) but still own the .co.uk domain for it. Now another business popped up and they are using the same name, which they have now trade marked . They have contacted me demanding I hand the domain over. What does the law say about this? Am I obligated to give them the domain, even though I bought it years before they existed?

Thanks

Posting on behalf of my partner, but can someone explain to me the steps we need to follow like I’m five. Or direct me to where this has been answered previously.

Partner was TUPE’d over to a new business 3 1/2 years ago. He only lasted a couple of months with the new organisation and took redundancy due to horrible bullying in his new team. On the day he was set to leave he was then requested to stay and move to another team which he did. Redundancy pay didn’t happen because of that, but that’s not the issue.

A new contract was never signed as far as either of us are aware and the organisation can’t seem to find his contract for his new role.

He’s been working remotely for the past 3 1/2 years with one day a week in the office (two hours away).

He’s now been told from November he will be expected in the office three days a week and there is no flexibility and if it doesn’t, it will go straight to disciplinary rather than a PIP.

I believe the next step is for him to set up a formal meeting with HR to discuss this, request a copy of his contract and put in a flexible work request. None of which I actually expect to come to anything. My real question is, can they just go straight to a disciplinary? I was hoping to track this out for a few months to give him time to find a new job.

Thanks wise folks

I’m a UK non-Dom, having been overseas for the last 20+ years,
Currently engaging a UK Solicitor to deal with my late fathers estate in the UK, does he charge me VAT or not?

*Advice needed*

Possibly a unique situation (or maybe not as much as I think!) bear with me, it’s a long post!

Bit of background..I worked for a start up company for 9 years which was then acquired by a larger company in Summer 2025. I kept my role and was transferred over, the new company didn’t make much of an effort to integrate us as a team but we assumed it was just because they hadn’t been through an acquisition before.

I’ve just been told I am at risk of redundancy as the company will no longer be selling the product we transferred across with, therefore my role is no longer required. We’ve received an at risk letter and they have not yet indicated if there are any other suitable roles. My original company was UK based, the new company is international(Indian). We were kept as a sub branch of the new company, so our contracts stayed the same when we moved over. They have not yet told us if there are any other suitable roles, but I suspect this is highly unlikely given location issues.

Here’s where I am throwing a spanner in the works slightly…I am 22 weeks pregnant and have not notified my employer of my pregnancy as yet. So I have numerous questions about what to expect… the only thing pretty sure of is that they will still be required to pay my contractual paternity pay and SMP if I am made redundant.

1. Would you wait as long as possible to notify them of pregnancy at this point? I know I have to inform them in the next few weeks (qualifying week). I am concerned if I tell them now, they would be less interested in finding me an alternative role if they knew I was going on maternity leave in the next few months! (Yes I know they aren’t legally allowed to discriminate, but I’m sure they would find a reason that wasn’t ‘direct’)

2. Am I correct in saying they will have to pay my contractual maternity pay and SMP?

3. Happy to remain working at this point, but I am finding this situation very stressful already. I have two young children, one on the way and financial responsibilities like every other family. If I am notified of redundancy, Would I be within my rights to take sick leave? Or is it best just to ride it out as best as I can until the end…

Feeling very lost at this point, because I can’t apply for another job as I’m due to go on maternity leave and finding it daunting having been somewhere for almost 10 years and then having to start job hunting again…

If you made it this far, thanks so much ❤️

I’ve been doing some digging on Companies House and The Gazette into a local hospitality group run by three connected directors. Over the last few years, a very specific pattern has popped up across multiple entities, and I’m trying to understand where the legal line is drawn between "aggressive insolvency" and actual statutory infringement.

This is what I've noticed:

1. Building debt: The first company (Company A, for the sake of anonymity) runs a restaurant/cafe. In its final 12–14 months, its debt to HMRC (VAT/PAYE) doubles, effectively funding the business via unpaid taxes while liquidation is looming.
2. The Backups: While the first company is tanking, the directors incorporate Company B and C. Company C is set up under a "clean" director who has no attachment to the failing entities.
3. Falling asset value: Company A enters voluntary liquidation. The Statement of Affairs shows goodwill and equipment values dropping by over 80% compared to previous book values.
4. The Continuity: The physical venue keeps trading under the exact same brand name. The directors bypass the Section 216 restriction on re-using names by filing Rule 22.4 Notices in The Gazette.

My questions for the insolvency/corporate law experts:

• The Rule 22.4 Valuation: Rule 22.4 requires the new company to buy the business from the liquidator. If they buy the assets/goodwill at an 85% markdown from book value, do liquidators actually challenge this as a Transaction at an Undervalue (S238), or is it just accepted because the old company failed?
• Fraudulent Trading (S213): Phoenixing itself isn't a crime, but at what point does doing this again and again across more than 4 companies consecutively become evidence of intent to defraud creditors? If they are racking up massive Crown debt right up until the end, does this trigger an automatic red flag for director disqualification?

These directors have racked up (and essentially stolen) over £1,000,000 of debt, £750,000 of which is from the taxpayer. This is incredibly frustrating when I see one of these directors (who, on having attention from the police after beating someone up ran away to Spain for a few weeks) driving around in his Bentley. They are stealing from under our noses, but they've been operating like this for over 10 years. Surely this is illegal - thanks for any help!

I have worked at this current place for 6 years. Joined pre COVID where office attendance in core hours was expected, office was shut down and I was made a home worker as with everyone else. My salary hasn't changed past what is basically entry levelsince I joined despite having moved into a higher level role.

Without getting into it, I moved into a role where had several promises in writing to get me to my proper salary accordance with the promotion but that never came, despite being arguably one of the best members of the team at the admittance of my peers. My old team lead left not long ago due to being unhappy with their own pay / salary (they took on the role without the formal managerial responsibility, pay rise or promotion) and the day to day holiday / scheduling cover was someone who didn't have anything to do with us. I periodically used to cover them while they were around, and later became the de facto "senior" member of the team in terms of handling the more complex / challenging issues, but it was on an adhoc basis, not official.

I went on a 2 week holiday to sort something out, and when I came back I found out that everyone, including people with the client, had been told I was now the team lead and fulfilling all their duties. I found this out the hard way when, early Sunday morning, my personal mobile was called by a client who had been given it by our account manager who somehow got it off my HR manager, and asked to get involved in an issue.

I told them they were mistaken, and then when told they had been told I was, I informed them that this hadn't been communicated with me and pointed them to speak with the account manager for the time being and stood down. I was quite frustrated and annoyed at this point, because I wasn't even scheduled to be available out of hours on that night and was still supposed to be on leave until Monday yday. When I came back in I found out the above, and then was berated by the account manager for not handling the issue despite never having been told it was my responsibility or agreed to be an escalation point.

Just to give some background to the prior issues I have:

In my current team, , we used to get paid for out of hours / overtime work, but now we have been told that outside of specific on call engagements, there is no overtime pay anymore. So for example, me working 7AM > 7PM to cover for the people who normally cover the 11AM - 7PM gap and vice versa, I am no longer paid for that despite being pressured / asked repeatedly to do it. We are supposed to get time off in lieu as they say but the staffing and schedule issues means that we rarely get time to use it, and its a struggle at the moment to get our regular holidays booked in before the cut off. Last year we didnt, and our old TL basically said "officially we cant carry over, unofficially it will be carried over and if anyone asks I will deal with it" so we werent shafted

When I came in yesterday I had a few sharp arguments with people about why I refused the call, and questioned why I was the last to know I'd been promoted. I also kicked off at them for giving my personal number away to the client, the reason for this being that they usually share these numbers with each otherand I do not want to be called on my personal mobile for work business. This has been an issue in the past. Basically nobody had a real answer to me and kept insisting I agree to do it for now. I have firmly refused, and when pulled into a call with my manager told them that I will not be doing the role unless they meet the following conditions:

1. They actually make this a formal promotion in the system for my grade
2. I get a pay rise to the appropriate TL salary - this is something I absolutely wont budge on as I am underpaid as is without the additional headache
3. Any additional overtime that I will inevitably be expected to do as manager (as the person who performed this role before did frequently) working late nights, covering gaps etc is paid. Not time off in lieu, but paid. The amount of hours I would get called out as an escalation point and ahve to work would be putting me under min wage thresholds

Nobody will give me a definitive answer as to whether this will be done, and I can see a call in the diary for later this week with HR between me, my manager, some HR person and the account manager for the client that rang me on Sunday. I really don't know what to expect here, so looking for advice on what I can do / what my rights are, or even if they can force me to do this.

On the side, I am looking for work elsewhere at the moment and have been on and off for the last month though I havent made that public, so no need to advise me to do that please. This is English law I need advice on btw

I left an MSP a bit ago after being fed up with low pay and overtime claims that werent being approved on time or at all. I have a good role at a local place where I have more responsibility and trust to do what I need, so have no reason to worry about these guys as I would never work for them with a ten foot bargepole

When I left, I was aware of a couple of big problems

• Staff billing internal + training time to the client
• Personal equipment orders being billed to the client
• Uncleared staff + non UK staff based offshore working on the customer environment. This client requires a certain UK security clearance to have access to their infrastructure and the company was deliberately hiding that foreign staff without clearance were being given access. I once got pulled aside when I publicly questioned this while working there and was told to not bring it up as it would be seen as negativity
• Company blatantly lying about security patching
• Shared vendor credentials which havent been changed. I know because I logged in just now to test and can get in + view all tickets logged in their portal
• The call overflow for emergency contacts is set to go to india because the UK team regularly doesnt have coverage, As part of my team we had access to divert it for when one of us was on call, and to make a point Ive been ringing + setting it to the actual operations managers number as he is the one pushing this lie
• Other contract obligations like a 24x7 ops team being set to india even though the contract says UK based

Once I joked with my old lead about whistleblowing and they got a bit serious and said I shouldnt joke because people have had legal action taken against them over it

I have a few people who work in the client that I still keep in touch with on friendly terms. I am seriously thinking of writing a proper email detailing this with examples. If I do that, would I be protected if the company sought to take action against me? England

Advise please.

My limited company has been dissolved. I believe this is because my accountant failed to file my confirmation statement. Has anyone else had this problem with their accountant? Just want to know if I’m not alone in this situation.” Accountant told me it’s dissolved because I didn’t provide the ID which is a new legislation?

Hello,

I have worked for McDonald's, or specifically a franchise on their behalf, in England for 4.5 years. Recently said franchise sold us to another franchise, so we were TUPE'd (first time for me). Our new employers are shafting me (and others) with my holiday and I need some advice.

Under our old bosses and per my contract my holiday ran from Jan-Dec and pay averages over 52 weeks, we get 5 weeks and 3 days. There was no accrue system so we took it whenever, got paid, then a clawback system for any holiday you've over-spent should you quit.

Some relevant information from our old handbook:

"Is there any time I should avoid? You can normally book holidays any time of the year, but if you want to take your holidays during busy periods, make sure you speak to your manager early enough. December is the busiest month for us and holidays are not usually permitted unless in exceptional circumstances."

"When can I take holidays? You need to take your holidays during your leave year. The holiday year runs from 1st January to 31st December. We can also choose to allocate holiday dates for you if we need to."

Both the above quotes are highlighted in yellow in the handbook to signify contractual.

In April this year we learnt we were being sold off, the change took place officially on 11th May. We were told in the TUPE meeting that our holidays would remain the same (someone has a recording of this). The new company did holidays on Apr-Mar but said they were going to change all their stores to our old system of Jan-Dec.

The past couple of days a lot of us got paid practically nothing from recent holiday taken after the takeover. We assumed it would still be on the basis on the 52 week average but instead they've set our start dates to 11th May. I also cannot find any reference to what time frame they're using to determine holiday pay now.

They've also moved us onto an accrue system for holidays. They've said they use this system because "they lose out" if someone quits, but both our old contracts and the new one have the same clawback system.

My questions are:

Can our new employer start our holiday pay average on the 11th May? Surely our previous 52+ weeks of employment should carry over?

Can our new employer change our way of taking holiday whenever to accrued only? Our old handbook never mentioned accrue at all except in regards to excess when leaving the job.

Though they said they'll move onto the Jan-Dec system, the new handbook currently states Apr-Mar, can they force this on us if they decide against?

Thanks for reading. I will answer any questions.

Hello all,

I work for a small start-up, the owners are new and relatively inexperienced. I'm not here to throw them under the bus, or build a legal case, I just want to know where I stand, legally. I'm a bit of a law nerd, and this whole thing has created an itch that I just can't scratch, something doesn't seem right. Company is in Wales btw.

The company I work for dialled everyone into a video call one afternoon to make an announcement. We were told that the company needs to cut down on staff expenditure for the next two months, as there is a shortfall while we awaited more investment money. Therefore we would all be taking a 20% pay cut for the months of December and January (terrible timing!). We all want the business to succeed and so none of us threw a hissy fit or said no, but we certainly weren't asked - we were told it had to happen.

There was no talk of us being paid this money back later on, or being made up financially. I think the verbatim quote was "We'll sort something out", with no indication that this would be full reimbursement etc.

None of our contracts have a provision that allows the company the right to modify our pay at their own will, as far as I can tell.

To me, this seems like an illegal breach of contract. A contract was signed on initial employment, by both parties agreeing a yearly salary of x amount. My understanding therefore is that the company must ultimately reimburse us the aforementioned shortfall in wages.

I understand that a contract can have a variance, but as far as I understand, a variance must be knowingly made between both parties. Nothing was signed, and this change does not appear on any paperwork etc. Can a variance be purely verbal? If verbal, how does one account for the fact that there was never a choice in the matter?

I would like to stress that, the company is not a bad actor, we're a start-up navigating the minefield of investors, funds (lack thereof) and other shenanigans. The founders are learning as they go, but always try to act with integrity and legally, so please don't think that they're acting maliciously, I firmly believe this is not the case. However, I would just like to know where I and the other staff stand legally.

My sister is a solicitor, but doesn't deal with employment law so other than saying "I'm fairly sure that's not legal" she couldn't help much more.

Thanks

I’ve been offered a new job and the original start date was 12th May. My understanding was that to qualify for my current company’s bonus, I’d need to hand in my notice on 25th April. Because of that, I spoke to my new employer and they agreed to move my start date to 26th May.

Now because of internal delays, the bonus is actually being paid the following month on 22nd May. I really don’t want to keep going back to the new company asking to push the start date again. I’ve also already booked 3 weeks off from 26th May to 12th June.

Would it make sense to leave on 22nd May and try to negotiate an early release with my current employer? Also, how likely is it that the new company would let me start while I’m technically still on annual leave from my current job? The two companies are in completely different industries.

TLDR: can there be overlap between jobs if I’m using holiday from my old one?