To threaten court action? would you in this situation?

[BuntyPenfold]

I have been made redundant, and am owed nearly £3000 n back pay, which my employer says he cannot afford to pay me, plus redundancy pay and pay in lieu of notice.

He seems to expect me to just walk away and take the loss, which I can't possibly afford to do. Also I am obviously worried about finding another job.

He insists the company is not insolvent and says he will pay me when he can, a little at a time.
He makes me feel unreasonable to want my pay.

I have taken advice from ACAS and from a solicitor.
Acas say they can help me claim the redundancy pay, which is not much, but not the back pay, as the company is still trading.

The lawyer (advice is covered on house insurance) says I have a case for unfair dismissal; as well he is illegally withholding my back pay, and they say take him to court.

There are two complications - one is I am pretty sure the company has very little money, so is it worth even trying a court case, if they just won't/can't pay out.

The other is that my boss, although still working, is ill. He is having chemo for cancer, which he brings into every conversation, when I am trying to resolve my problem.
I am completely broke.
I am desperately worried.
I am being emotionally blackmailed.
My boss lives in the same small village.

I can't even think of what advice to give - I just don't know what I would do in such a complicated situation.
So i'm not much help but hopefully will bump up page in case someone more cleverer than me comes along.

Wow. Terrible situation.

The chemo is irrelevant. In fact, at risk of sounding like the hard-nosed bitch I am, it makes it MORE important to get your money now. Will be very much harder if he dies and the company is suddenly in disarray or receivership or whatever.

A nasty letter from a solicitor might put you at the top of the list of people to be dealt with - the nice meek ones who say oh sorry to hear you're having chemo are going to be right at the bottom.

Take your lawyer's advice. Start court proceedings. With any luck your boss will pay you just to get rid of you, and you won't have to go to court at all.

OK sorry, but time to be cold and business like with this.

Don't let him off with the Cancer thing. He is using that as a method to get you to walk away from money you have earned! He has treated you abominably. If he wants sympathy, making you redundant and stiffing you is not the way to go about it.

I'm thinking that if times are toughish, he'll not be able to hire a hot shot employment lawyer.

You can go to the CAB and can consult your Solicitor.

Perhaps run this past them, but have an agreement, a payment plan drawn up for him to pay you the back pay, the redundancy and all that is due to you, PLUS a premium for not having done this in the right manner, or you will take him to court, you WILL win and you'll bankrupt him. If your solicitor is paid for by your Insurance, you have nothing to lose. I'm willing to bet he may suddenly be able to find your money.

Don't let the C word stand in your way of getting what he owes you. I mean that in both respects...

Chase the money. You need it. When my bro changed jobs he chased his ex. employer for the bonus he was due and won and I think that you have a much better claim than he did.

Did your brother use a tribunal or a court Dione?

Contact local Employment Tribunal and complete and send him an ET1 which is the first step in making a formal claim. Shouldn't cost you a penny but will act as a shot across his bows and if there's any money there ought to shake it out. He is in breach of contract for the back pay and if he didn't follow a procedure re the redundancy the dismissal may be held as unfair. I'd do it quickly.

Good luck.

It doesn't matter what the compnay's problems are: they have their debts to you, and have to acknowledge them.

Try to ease your feelings of guilt by reminding yourself that you can, in getting an acknowledgement that you are owed this money, allow the company to negotiate a repayment schedule.

If they are close to bankruptcy, you need to get your claim in the queue/ onto the debt sheet, as if they are close enough to bankruptcy for £3000+ to make the difference, they OUGHT to stop trading. You don't want them to go under not having made provision for your debt, do you?

Does your boss own the company, or just work in it?

What I can't remember is whether and where in the pecking order redundancy claims come in the event of bankruptcy. There may also be a provision for some of the redundancy pay to come from the state in these circumstances. The back pay would form part of the debtors queue in the event of bankruptcy. Will check and try to post back tomorrow but you need to get your skates on with this.

You can take him to small claims court for £3k, minimum hassle. It's your money

He used a solicitor to threaten tribunal. The threat was enough.

But the ET1 can just as easily be submitted by the claimant and will cost nothing. Not sure of the extent of cover for legal advice under domestic insurance policy and whether it will extend to instructing lawyer to fight the case.

Submit the ET1 but check if you have insurance cover first. If you do, make sure you ring them before you submit the ET1. If not you can submit it yourself and represent yourself at Tribunal. The system is set up to make it easy for people to do this (although how well it actually works when Ms Ex-employee is facing down Ms Big-shot-barrister is debateable) and your employer is unlikely to be able to afford to pay for legal representation or an isurance policy himself judging by what you've said about the perilous state of the finances.

Just for info, if you have legal cover under home or motor insurance policy they will act for you once your employment has terminated (which it has) and will take on a case for unfair dismissal and deal with the associated costs such as unpaid wages.

Important: you only have 3 months, less one day, from the date of incident (in this case the date of your dismissal) to submit your ET1 to the employment tribunal so don't hang about.

You can also stop proceedings at any time, but IMO you should start them. As pulpervert says if they can't afford to pay you they really don't have much future and your chance of recovering your loss diminishes.

Have you got anything in writing from your employer? If you haven't get it.

And yes, as pp have said you can't be compassionate about the cancer whilst you're being screwed over. It's a shitty situation but only because your employer hasn't fulfilled his obligations. Don't forget that.

Thank you every one.
Has anyone actually done this?
I can't really believe it has come to this.

Representing the co as the HR manager Bunty. Have checked and if your redundancy is fair and the co is bankrupt you do have recourse to claim the redundancy money from the state. If unfair you have been wrongfully dismissed and should claim via tribunal. You should also claim backpay via tribunal because your employer is in breach of contract. In the event of insolvency you have a prefential position in the queue vis a vis the backpay.

If not insolvent the ET1 should be a lever for a cheque to settle because employer is unlikely to want to rack up costs if position is precarious. If about to be insolvent you need to stake your claim and fast before anyone else gets paid out.

Good luck.