Witholding first weeks wages - is this legal?

[QueenOfFeckingEverything]

A friend has recently started a new job as a waitress with hours that vary from week to week.

She has been told that she will be paid weekly in arrears, but that as well as that the wages for the hours she worked in her first week will be witheld until she leaves.

What's that about, and is it legal? She has no contract btw so she can't check that.

Do you mean she's getting paid correctly, but there's a week's lying time? That's common for the zero hour contracts at my employer, as far as I'm aware. I've never encountered it in a salaried role (like mine) but it's pretty normal for non-salaried (at least around here).

Of course, I'm assuming that they are a legit company with a solid record for proper payment of wages / etc. rather than anything suspicious where there's a high turnover of staff and the owner regularly withholds payment - that's certainly a potential issue. But a lot of normal, totally legit organisations pay in this way - just to confirm it for you

Never heard of 'lying time'!

Basically, she doesn't get paid for the 10 hours she did in her first week, until after she leaves.

Then from her second week onwards, she is paid for whatever hours she worked a week in arrears.

Does that make sense, and is that the same as 'lying time'?

It sounds like a crap job with a crap boss btw, she is concerned about all kinds of other things there already (food hygiene for a start!), but needs the money.

Sounds to me like they are trying to stop her leaving with no notice. Not legal as far as I can tell but getting them to pay up may be harder.

"Does that make sense, and is that the same as 'lying time'?" Yes - that's my understanding of our non-salaried employees exactly.

This is fairly typical in my industry though, so wouldn't raise an eyebrow at all, and as far as I'm aware isn't generally abused, obviously not every place is like that, and they defintiely could be using it as part of a wider scam, naturally there are bad employers in every industry!

Those are the terms and conditions being offered to her. She's not being told they are not going to pay her for those hours, she's being told she will get paid them on leaving - she can either agree to those terms or not, but assuming she agrees, it's not illegal. If she was told she would be paid on x date and they don't, that then becomes more like non-payment of wages.

She should insist on a written statement of the main terms of her employment though, so she knows things like pay and holiday.