AIBU to not pay the extra labourer??

[BananaHammock23]

I think I know the answer to this one but I wanted to put it out to the MN jury...

We're having a kitchen extension at the moment. My DF is a builder he's doing most of the work, but while we were waiting for him to finish another job I found two local labourers on a FB group. They're excellent and have worked so hard –I can't fault them.

However, we hired two of them. On Monday, they turned up with another guy –a friend of theirs. They said they didn't expect us to pay him, but were finding the work was going too slowly (excavating a massive bit of the garden) and that they'd split their wages with them. The other guy worked really hard and we ended up giving him £20 less than the others for his graft.

This morning, the two labourers we've hired turned up on time, with the other guy again. They didn't mention wages. I feel really uncomfortable about it and said to DP that I think we should give the labourers their day rate and leave them to pay the other guy. We haven't asked him to come, we haven't agreed for him to be there and there are definitely more hands than needed on site.

AIBU to send all three of them home with two wages and expect them to split it between three?

Of course not. Did you agree a price for the full works or are you paying them a wage? It’s important to pin down a price.

@DeliciouslyFemale - that's what I think too! We're paying them a fixed day rate.

We're paying them a fixed day rate.
That raises alarm bells! They should agree a fixed price at the start of the job, the distribution of wages and amount of people required to do the job is then up to them to decide. I'm assuming its cash too? I've nothing against cash, bit make sure they have insurance and their work is guaranteed!

@Alexandernevermind my dad's a builder, so he's doing the majority of it with his men. These are just two guys helping with a simple garden excavation job so we agreed to pay them daily to help out as and when needed. They're not part of the builders cost, if that makes sense.

My DH does gardens.
He gives a day rate/fixed price depending on the job...... but if he chooses to take an extra bod, it's him it costs, not his clients.

You should get them to quote for the job, not a fixed daily rate, you are not their employer and are not paying “wages”. I don’t understand why you paid the third guy the first day when they told you there was no need.

It's good your dad is on site to oversee everything. You need a talk with the labourers and work out exactly what work is to be done and when, and who is to be paid what and by whom. Don't let them trick you into doing a mate a bit of a favour by letting him tag along. Treat the project as a business and be a firm project manager. Get your dad to keep an eye on their work when they are on site. Again make sure they have insurance, there are so many have-a-go cowboys.