P4 and held / holiday fund

[zathras]

Hi, anyone have any comments on the following, i'm not sure if i can do anything about this, and if i can, what i can do!

I terminated my association with P4 as soon as i heard the administration announcement. i have one invoice outstanding which my agent has written confirmation from the administrators that they would process and pay me as normal (they wouldn't release funds without it).

My problem is P4 have £600 of held/holiday funds that they won't release.

Originally they said i couldn't have this money.

Then I put in a claim for 2 days i took last month and they decline to pay me this.

Then the cheeky t**ts told me if i stayed with P4 i could have my holiday money ! i told them where to shove this and that this was blackmail, they backed away quickly and agreed to pay me for those days as holidays as this was in the bounds of the contract, but they would not release the rest until they come out of Admin.

yesterday they changed their mind again and said no holiday funds would be released this month, and each individual case would be reviewed before the end of September, and the money might be paid then.

I kicked off, and complained, quoted their 'service guarentee' to them, and now they have agreed to pay me for the 2 days.

But, what annoys me the most about all this, and this is the question i'm asking (yes there is one, thanks for reading this far to get to it ), they won't pay me my money back, BUT they will continue to take money from the invoice they are processing to add to it ! how can this be allowed, how can they continue to acrue money into a fund that they won't pay out of ? is there anything i can do to stop them doing this ?

Thanks

Speak to the DTI about what you can do if your employer is refusing to give you holiday pay.

Depending on what the DTI says, you might end up taking them to court. An outstanding court case might actually make life difficult for the administrator in which case he might pay out just to get rid of you.

[WindyAnna]

I haven't told them I'm off as I was expecting just this type of reaction ... the agency have happily moved my contract but not terminated the P4 one - once they have paid me this month (I had already asked for my held fund due to 3 weeks holiday in July) then I shall tell them I'm off.

Underhand, yes, protecting me interests abso-bl**din-lutely.

Pay a solicitor to send them a nasty letter - will cost you an hour of a solictors time (or be free if you have legal cover anywhere) and like pp said - hopefully worry them - if "Tarpon" are trying to generate new business they won't want this sort of thing in the public domain.

Windy

[WindyAnna]

Also - have a word with the administrators, explain your position and make it clear in the most pleasant terms that you will feel the need to share the tale of this treatment with your contractor friends and colleagues across the country - if they want to keep P4 as a going concern that is the type of publicity they won't want.

WA

[BlasterBates]

Hi, anyone have any comments on the following, i'm not sure if i can do anything about this, and if i can, what i can do!

I terminated my association with P4 as soon as i heard the administration announcement. i have one invoice outstanding which my agent has written confirmation from the administrators that they would process and pay me as normal (they wouldn't release funds without it).

My problem is P4 have £600 of held/holiday funds that they won't release.

Originally they said i couldn't have this money.

Then I put in a claim for 2 days i took last month and they decline to pay me this.

Then the cheeky t**ts told me if i stayed with P4 i could have my holiday money ! i told them where to shove this and that this was blackmail, they backed away quickly and agreed to pay me for those days as holidays as this was in the bounds of the contract, but they would not release the rest until they come out of Admin.

yesterday they changed their mind again and said no holiday funds would be released this month, and each individual case would be reviewed before the end of September, and the money might be paid then.

I kicked off, and complained, quoted their 'service guarentee' to them, and now they have agreed to pay me for the 2 days.

But, what annoys me the most about all this, and this is the question i'm asking (yes there is one, thanks for reading this far to get to it ), they won't pay me my money back, BUT they will continue to take money from the invoice they are processing to add to it ! how can this be allowed, how can they continue to acrue money into a fund that they won't pay out of ? is there anything i can do to stop them doing this ?

Thanks

I think the reason is that although outstanding salaries have a high priority in bankruptcy cases, outstanding holidays don't. In other words the assets wil be distributed and only if there are any left over will your holidays be paid out. Receivers have discretion which is why they offered to pay you if you stayed on. This isn't "blackmail" it is quite normal but they should really have explained. Receivers will entice some employees to stay on to try to finish any outstanding business and maximise what ever income they can squeeze out before the company is wrapped up.

From what I hear the receivers seem to be doing a reasonable job. I mean, it is a bankruptcy.

[AndyF]

I think the reason is that although outstanding salaries have a high priority in bankruptcy cases, outstanding holidays don't. In other words the assets wil be distributed and only if there are any left over will your holidays be paid out. .

my issue here is that this is salary ! salary they took from me to 'look after' in case i wanted some time off, or was ill, so they could give it me back.

this is not holiday money it's my money,my salary that they now decide i can't have !!

[BlasterBates]

No it isn't it is holiday. If holiday and salary were the same then they wouldn't hold it back for you. They do this for legal reasons.



I'm afraid that is (probably) how the law is. I was in a bankruptcy, not in the UK admittedly, and I was fully compensated for my salary but not holidays.