Please can anyone offer some advice with regard to employers not paying me?

[wtfhashappened]

I work as a civilian teacher in the Army in Germany and should be paid 4 weeks in arrears. I have now been waiting for payment for 8 weeks for one month's wages and no sign of that or the second month's. I have repeatedly seen my line manager about this and her boss to no avail and apart from the fact I am owed over 2500 euros now, I am physically out of pocket for 1700 euros for my child care, which is taken out on the first of the month, so I have paid 3 months worth. I have literally got no money now, and nothing I do seems to resolve this.

I suffer from depression anyway, which is normally well managed by ADs, but this has caused so much stress that all weekend I have been having panic attacks and have been being sick.

Can I take legal action? If so, how do I start?

I would be very grateful for any advice at all. Thank you for reading this.

No answers i'm afraid but bumping for you.

If you're subject to UK law, you can make a claim in the County Court (often known as Small Claims Court). You can do this online (but it does depend on what your status is as an army employee vis a vis UK law). You'd need to check this.

But before doing this, I'd recommend writing a formal letter to your Head of Department stating your case. Something along the lines of:

Dear XYZ

I am writing to you with regard to the £XXX that I am owed for XXX (details of why they owe you the money, with dates etc).

I have been owed this money since XX (date) and have done * in order to obtain payment of the amount owed to me (insert details of what you have done, ie. phone calls, letters or meeting with bosses etc. Add dates if poss -- the more specific the better).

Despite XYZ promises (insert details if you've had people assure you that you'd get the money by a particular date etc) I have still not received payment of the amount due, and all my attempts to obtain payment have been unsucessful.

I therefore have no option but to inform you that if I do not receive payment of the outstanding amount within fourteen days from the date of this letter, I shall have no option but to commence legal action in the County Court in order to obtain payment.

I look forward to hearing from you v. shortly.

Yours sincerely

wtf

But do check out your legal position before you start kicking ass -- it might be worth writing a slightly less formal letter first just so that you know you've exhausted all possibilities. Letters are much harder for people to ignore than phone calls or conversations.

thank you very much, frogs. That is really useful.

Not so useful..... but you can borrow my baseball bat with nails in the end if all else fails.

Just go in all Tarintino. They will start writing the cheque quickly. I am not sure how the law will react though.

Do not wait for a cheque. They owe you the money. Demand it is paid by BACS transfer (costs them £50, but it is there error, not yours).

yes please Ani - I hope they're really BIG nails. I have just written the letter frogs suggested and am going in tomorrow to see them - I wish I could be pre-menstrual tomorrow- THAT would scare them!