Last day of work unpaid as it wasn't worked. Fault was on their side

**Lance** · 19 July 2021, 09:08

Originally posted by FreakShow View Post

I completed a contract for a German aerospace company. My final contracted day was 1st June, and I am paid on the 14th of the following month, so Junes payment would come 14th July.

This date came and went and my one day of pay was not paid. I have now been told that it's not been paid as the day wasn't worked. I logged in as usual, but on their system the final day of work was marked as the 31st May, and so my IT accounts were locked and I could not check emails, discuss with my team members or anything like that. I have emails up to about 3pm of me requesting HR to unlock my account, but all to no avail. So whilst the day went without work, it's not my fault.

My agency has gone to discuss things with them, but my impression is they are going to play stick in the mud and say it wasn't worked therefore I'm not owed any money. What is the recourse I can undertake here? With it being a german aerospace company, can I still take them to small claims court? Or the agency? It's only ~£350, but it's not something I want to just let go.

TIA!

what company name is on the invoice you issue? That's who you chase. Almost certainly the agency.
Pretty basic stuff this.

Also. If you didn't work it you're not going to get paid for it. If you wasted a day trying to access systems just for one day's pay then you have done just that. Wasted a day.

**FreakShow** · 19 July 2021, 09:25

That's a good point, but it's the agency that I invoice, so that's a UK position that I can chase.

As I say, I was there and ready to work. I fail to see how that is a fault that leads me to losing out on money.

**northernladuk** · 19 July 2021, 09:25

Small claims won't work. It costs a couple of hundred to put the claim in then a hundred for court fees and takes about three months at the moment. You are liable to lose that amount plus the money you think you are owed and time off to attend court.

Your only option really is to keep dunning them until they pay up but if they didn't receive payment from the client and believe you didn't work it's unlikely this will work either. Up to you if you want to try it.

Ready to work doesn't really cut it. I imagine there will be a line in your contract saying paid upon receipt of a signed timesheet. No work, no timesheet, no pay. Being ready isn't a factor in either the client or the agents eyes.

I get not letting it go but there isn't much you can do except hassle them. It can work when there is a good case for the money but with two parties not believing you aren't owed it you've a mountain to climb. Might have to get ready to write this one off at a certain point.

**Fred Bloggs** · 19 July 2021, 09:39

Cripes, again?

What's so hard to understand? You don't get paid for what you don't work. You get paid for what you do work.

Dead easy?

Far more sensible to put the time and effort into finding the next job.

**ladymuck** · 19 July 2021, 10:02

I think the issue is that the OP was available for work per the contract but a client eff up meant that they couldn't access the systems in order to do anything on their last day.

I can understand the client's POV that no work was done so why should they pay but I can also sympathise with the OP. If they had known that their access would be revoked a day early, they could have done something else with their time.

If the agency isn't going to pay because the client is refusing to sign the day off then sadly there isn't much that can be done because the cost of recovery would outweigh the invoice value.

There's a principle at stake but sometimes you have to let these things go.

**Lance** · 19 July 2021, 10:18

Originally posted by ladymuck View Post

I think the issue is that the OP was available for work per the contract but a client eff up meant that they couldn't access the systems in order to do anything on their last day.

I can understand the client's POV that no work was done so why should they pay but I can also sympathise with the OP. If they had known that their access would be revoked a day early, they could have done something else with their time.

If the agency isn't going to pay because the client is refusing to sign the day off then sadly there isn't much that can be done because the cost of recovery would outweigh the invoice value.

There's a principle at stake but sometimes you have to let these things go.

you are assuming that 1st July was the last day of the contract though.
The contract might run TILL the 1st July. In that case OP has lost a day for nothing.

**malvolio** · 19 July 2021, 10:24

Originally posted by Lance View Post

you are assuming that 1st July was the last day of the contract though.
The contract might run TILL the 1st July. In that case OP has lost a day for nothing.

More than likely true, times usually run from midnight after all. But cock up rather than conspiracy, on whose side is up for debate!

Best possible result is to raise an invoice, waste effort arguing about for several times, get nowhere, don't get any money, write off the invoice as a bad debt and get the CT offset as a result. So somewhere around £100 saved. Is it really worth it?

**jayn200** · 19 July 2021, 12:55

Do you really need to chase 1 day you didn't even work for payment? You're not an employee, part of running a business is knowing what isn't worth the effort to chase. I get you're bitter about what happened but that's not a good enough reason to go through this amount of effort and likely end up with nothing.

**zonkkk** · 19 July 2021, 20:29

Let it go.

Last day of work unpaid as it wasn't worked. Fault was on their side