DS has been sacked

[romanvilla]

Student DS, 20 has been doing bar work this summer. He's never signed a contract, has been getting his weekly rota on a FB page.

The chap who knows the bar treats the bar staff badly, swears at them, is rude to them in front of his customer mates and is notorious for not being a nice person. personally I think weekend nights are nose nights.

Finally DS cracked when horrid boss was outrageously nasty to DS in front of a customer. DS took him to one side and said 'I appreciate you like the banter but I find it difficult when you talk to me like that'.

The next day he received a text telling him that hours were being cut and not to come in any more.

DS is outraged, awful boss owes him £300 and told DS that he was 'too busy to deal with it'.

I suspect there's nothing he can do but any advice would be welcome.

Hi

I'd recommend screenshots of the facebook group/messages etc if possible to prove he was employed there.
Maybe he should send him a text saying he can substantiate that he was employed there and wants his wages within a week or will take it to the small claims court (the reality of that might be more tricky).

Good idea, thank you.
he has copies of the roots on his phone.

Has he been paying tax/NI or cash in hand? If it's cash in hand which no contract would indicate then he doesn't have much leverage.

No, into his account so NI.

Similar thing happened to a friend of mine when we were students. He went to citizens advice and they helped him write a scary sounding letter threatening legal action and he was paid very quickly after it was received. Might be worth a go.

I think a scary letter is the way to go too.

DS is furious right now and wants to report the boss for contravening all sorts of laws; never asking for ID, making staff work for 12 hours without breaks etc.

Hopefully when he's calmed down he can claim the money owed and forget about it.
But there are lots of permanent staff that have to put up with the nonsense and daren't stand up to the arsehole boss.

How long was he working there for? If one month or more then he is legally entitled to one weeks notice payment as well as his earnings. Even without a written contract.

3 months, that's interesting.

Was he working for a chain or freehold? If a chain then he'll be in the payroll system and there will be a proper HR dept who he should contact with these types of issues.

But if under 2 years, they can just let him go with no formal reason. If it were 0 hours ie. No fixed pattern or guaranteed minimum hours then a week's notice won't make much odds. When is his pay due?

Thanks for the comments.
A lawyer mate has got involved and negotiated the pay due to DS plus 2 weeks extra because the dismissal process wasn't taken properly.

It turns out this isn't the first time it's happened, but will hopefully be the last.