Help! Company not paying me for days worked for them!

[TheFaQQer]

Anything more than this and you are at risk of having the PO voided resulting in no payment at all.

Refer them to clause 5.3 - The BBC shall only be entitled to withhold that amount indicated as in dispute.

[GB9]

First of all, that is a veiled threat. Take four days or get nothing.


Actually they can, quite easily. Just say see you in court and the OPs options are issue proceedings or walk away. It happens all the time

Agree with the first point.

Last point, yes, they can refuse to pay, hence my comment about what the OP does next will impact upon how easily they get the 4 days. However, ultimately they have offered 4 days so they will end up paying it, even if it does mean court action. The danger is if a judge finds that 4 days was fair, they won't have to pay any costs.

[TheFaQQer]

I just received this :

"Hi,

I’m a little disappointed that things have come to this but I’m going to attempt to explain the situation one last time. There are a few things that I need you to understand about freelancing in general but particularly with the [COMPANY NAME] so that you’re clear on our position on how it pays its suppliers and the people it works with.

You can only be paid for the work you have done irrespective of how long you were ‘with us’. Because you’re not employed by us, you should think of yourself as similar to being a supplier. An employee can be expected to be paid regardless of their activity but a supplier will only be paid for the work done / goods received. If it was the case you spent 13 days (let’s say 7 hours per day) doing work for us then we would pay that but we don’t believe this reflects your output.

As a freelancer, it is your responsibility to manage your time and resources to ensure you meet the commitments to the [COMPANY NAME]– anything you do outside of that is your prerogative. We did not ask you to work exclusively with us nor did we request you to be in the [COMPANY NAME] office every day.

The original PO was raised for 20 days to express commitment to pay you but as things didn’t work out you are not eligible and should not expect to be paid the 20 days. This PO does not form a contract or commitment to pay. The [COMPANY NAME] is within its rights to refuse to pay invoices should it not be satisfied with what was delivered.

The maximum I can approve for the work you have done is four days. Anything more than this and you are at risk of having the PO voided resulting in no payment at all.

Please let me know how you wish to proceed.

[Contact name]."

Here's the reply:

Hi,

I’m a little disappointed that things have come to this but I’m going to attempt to explain the situation one last time. There are a few things that I need you to understand about freelancing in general, and also contract law in England and Wales.

In the absence of a formal contract, a purchase order used in the process of forming a contract. Sending a purchase order to a supplier constitutes a legal offer to buy products or services. Acceptance of a purchase order by a seller usually forms a contract between the buyer and seller, so when I commenced work, this was acceptance of the PO and a contract to supply services for 20 days was formed. (NOTE: Check if there is anything on the PO which contradicts this)

The purchase order was for a period of 20 days and stipulates a daily rate of £x. This means that for each professional working day completed, you are obliged to pay MyCo £x plus VAT.

During the engagement, [COMPANY NAME] provided specific work details on nine separate days, and I continued to provide services to [COMPANY NAME] for a period of thirteen days in total. I am not claiming to be an employee of [COMPANY NAME] and do not regard myself as one - in accordance with the contract, I provided my services to [COMPANY NAME] for thirteen days.

As a freelancer, it is my responsibility to manage my time and resources to ensure you meet the commitments to each client, and anything I do outside of that is my prerogative, which is exactly why I provided services to [COMPANY NAME] for thirteen days before you terminated the contract.

Since I provided services for thirteen days, this is what is reflected in my invoice. In line with the contract, please ensure that the invoice is paid in full by XXth August 2013, or interest will be charged in line with The Late Payment of Commercial Debts Regulations 2013. If we cannot resolve the situation amicably, then I will have no choice but to seek other avenues to retrieve payment, including but not limited to court action or passing the details of the debt on to debt collection agencies.

Best Regards,

PazzoRilancio

[NotAllThere]

I think it would be wise to stop arguing with the client at this point. Get a solicitor to write a letter that says "my client says you owe him for 13 days and under the law he's right".

1. Go through the dunning process for the 13 days, attaching a copy of the solicitor's letter each time.
2. When/if the dunning process fails to elicit payment, begin court proceedings.

Unless you are a legal expert you are potentially muddying the waters and weakening your own case.

[GB9]

OP - do you have any policies through QDOS or are you a member of the PCG? Either should entitle you to, at the least, free legal advice.

[Safe Collections]

I think it would be wise to stop arguing with the client at this point. Get a solicitor to write a letter that says "my client says you owe him for 13 days and under the law he's right".

1. Go through the dunning process for the 13 days, attaching a copy of the solicitor's letter each time.
2. When/if the dunning process fails to elicit payment, begin court proceedings.

Unless you are a legal expert you are potentially muddying the waters and weakening your own case.

It's pointless to pay a solicitor to write a letter initially, has very little impact and is usually the last warning before court. Not the first step when you don't get paid Plus if the end client responds to the solicitor they'll charge for receiving it!

The OP could try chasing the invoices (dunning is a yankee term :P ) but given they are disputing the amount we fail to see how this would help while the dispute remains unresolved.

Our advice based on what we know so far is accept the four days, make a counter offer or issue proceedings. But be prepared for a fight if you do issue.

[cojak]

I must admit, this is one of those threads where I would agree with Kittykat (was that his/her name?), I would seriously look at researching and fighting this one.

[PazzoRilancio]

Thanks all!

I have emailed them to suggest a settlement (without prejudice) which is half way between the 4 days they've suggested, and the 13 days I was working for them. Fingers crossed they accept and it's all over! If they don't, it's then a decision on whether to accept 4 days (which would be horrible seeing as I was expecting £2k from this contract).

I imagine a fight would be the next step if they refuse any form of settlement. Proof for more than 4 days worth of work will be easy enough with emails over 9 separate days asking for various bits of work (which was done the next day each time!)

[GB9]

Thanks all!
I imagine a fight would be the next step if they refuse any form of settlement. Proof for more than 4 days worth of work will be easy enough with emails over 9 separate days asking for various bits of work (which was done the next day each time!)

If you are certain the e-mails you have authorise work on specific days then I would go for them big time and be as snotty as you want.

[psychocandy]

Thanks all!

1) Yes, happy with payment for 13 days
2) Yes, I have emails from them on 9 days out of those 13 asking me to do things or confirming receipt of work I'd delivered
3) Several of those days I was available for them as agreed but they didn't send me any work - On those days, I'd emailed them to basically ask what they needed with no response (but of course, I couldn't then do other contracts on those days)

They've just messed up big time here and thought they had more work than they did by the looks of things. And the person who hired me is most likely trying to cover his own back so the bosses don't see what a costly mistake the guy has made.

To the poster who said my work may only have been worth about 4 days:
- That's subjective (it actually was about 8 days of work including research and admin which I do have a personal timesheet for, and that goes across the 13 days)
- On the other days, I was still in contract with the employer and in constant contact with them for work. I was unable to undertake other contracts during this period.

I'll keep you updated. Thanks!

Ah. Didnt see this. So you werent actually on site with them?