17 year old unfair dismissal help

PTL

Hi,
I'm posting this on behalf of my sister.

Shes just 17 still in school and got a part time cleaning job in an office with another girl (28-ish) the other girl was working there 4 weeks before my sister. They worked 2 n half hours a day monday-friday

They were getting both there pay put into the other girls bank account!!!
They wern't getting ANY payslips
They were getting paid 220 and then the employer would take either 30 or 40 euro in tax (no reason why it changed from week to week) but still not give them payslips.
They wernt getting paid for bank holidays
They wernt getting paid any holiday pay
They only got paid 3 days over the christmas even though the holidays were 2 weeks (thats the only holiday pay they ever got)


They then were caught leaving a half hour early one day ... without warning the employer called up the other girl and was freaking out and basically told her to tell my sister that she is fired and that he is keeping the other girl on but employing a supervisor to look over the work etc.

Now i know they both shouldnt of knocked off early and im not saying she shouldnt have been fired but he gave her no warning ... told her she would have to wait 2 week to get her pay for the work done and told her she would have to wait 2-3 weeks for a p45!

Is there a way i can find out if he was actually paying tax for her? I dont want to get her in trouble by ringing the revenue or anything like that and then them getting involved what do i ask for and who do i ring or what do you guys think ...

Shes not looking for money or anything like that just i think the employer is as ropey as they come and want to make sure he wasnt taking that tax and putting it into his pocket but also if she was intitled to holiday pay or anything then feck it why not get it off him

Any help or information at all is welcomed

dahamsta

She's legally entitled to payslips and the employer has obviously been paying her off the books, so she should work out what she's owed and go down there and demand it. If the employer refuses, she should ask for her payslips "for the record". He'll pay up quick enough.

adam

Victor

Talk to the Labour Relations Commission www.lrc.ie

Does the employer have your sister's RSI number? If so, I doubt she has anything to fear, as she wouldn't be earning enough to have a tax liability.

jhegarty

Victor wrote:

Talk to the Labour Relations Commission www.lrc.ie

Does the employer have your sister's RSI number? If so, I doubt she has anything to fear, as she wouldn't be earning enough to have a tax liability.

and these might help too: http://www.revenue.ie/

PTL

The employer would have her rsi number but without payslips and paying both wages into one account and taking different amounts of tax out each week makes me think that it wasn't on the books but he was pretending it was.

And i thought someone who was 17 in school earning such a low amount shouldnt have to pay any tax?

seamus

D'oh. Had a big reply typed out and it's gone.

As said above:
Go with her and demand payslips. If he refuses, file a complaint with the rights commissoner service of the LRC as Victor linked to.
At €220 per week, she shouldn't have been paying tax. She is entitled to each week's "tax" which he pocketed for himself.
Bank holidays should have been paid at 1/5 of her normal weekly wage (i.e. €45), whether she worked on that day or not. I.e. if she worked 2.5 hours on one bank holiday, she's entitled to that 2.5 hours + €45.
Normal Holidays should have been given at 8% of her annual hours - i.e. she did 12.5 hours per week, so she was entitled to 1 hour of holidays per week. If she worked there for 6 weeks, he owes her 6 hours holiday pay.

I wouldn't bother pursuing the Unfair dismissal route. I'm assuming she'd been working there less than a year. In general, you can't file an unfair dismissal complaint without a year's service. Since he had some grounds for dismissing her (AWOL), the case would be ignored.

PTL

seamus your a star!

the unfair dismissal was only to fit in a discription in the title to explain it shes not actually looking for unfair dismissal at all just all of the above which you said.

Now is there any way of finding out was he paying that 30-40euro of tax to the revenue ? like do i ring up revenue and ask for a summary of tax paid on her name? or do i ask for a tax clearance or what exactly just so i know going in there wither he ACTUALLY pocketed the money ... and if he did pocket it ill get every penny back but if he actually paid it i still can get that back cause she shouldnt of been paying it? Just would like to know befor going into him so i can have my ammunition ready

seamus

She is also entitled to a P45, even though she was dismissed. On the P45, he should mark down her total pay, and her total tax paid.

In fairness to the guy, he may have been taking emergency tax from her (which would explain why it was different each week). But this should be detailed on the P45. At this time of year, he should also issue a P60 (even though she's been dismissed). The P60 is the end-of-year P45, which shows how much was paid for all of last year, and how much tax was deducted.

Armed with the P60, she can go to the revenue and claim that tax back. If the employer hasn't issued either a P60 or a P45, a quick call to the revenue will land him in a whole heap of trouble.

So she should get a P60 for the year ended 31/12/05 and a P45 detailing her income and PAYE for the period from 1/1/06 until she was fired.

PTL

and actually can u just clarify the holiday one with the 1/5 of her wage .... the others i understand but im not too good at this sort of thing

Yea she worked 15 weeks so 15hours holiday pay owed but the two weeks the office was closed for christmas and the bank holidays should she have gotten 22.50euro a day

(she got 220 every TWO weeks which is 110 a week which is even worse for taking tax)

then minus what she actually got paid for the 3 days she got pay for during christmas? So if it was 2weeks during christmas and then holoween (oct-now i think thats all the holidays) that should be 11 * 22.50 ?

And what about no warning written or verbal and firing would that mean you should get a weeks wage in lue of notice? She has never gotten a warning ever before either has the other worker

SarahMc

She should check to see if PRSI was paid. If PRSI wasn't paid, income tax certainly wasn't.
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seamus

PTL wrote:

and actually can u just clarify the holiday one with the 1/5 of her wage .... the others i understand but im not too good at this sort of thing

Yea she worked 15 weeks so 15hours holiday pay owed but the two weeks the office was closed for christmas and the bank holidays should she have gotten 22.50euro a day

(she got 220 every TWO weeks which is 110 a week which is even worse for taking tax)

then minus what she actually got paid for the 3 days she got pay for during christmas? So if it was 2weeks during christmas and then holoween (oct-now i think thats all the holidays) that should be 11 * 22.50 ?

And what about no warning written or verbal and firing would that mean you should get a weeks wage in lue of notice? She has never gotten a warning ever before either has the other worker

Phew

Unless she had a contract which said otherwise, afaik she is entitled to a standard day's pay for every day that the office was closed, minus her holiday entitlement. So if she was due 25 hours (two weeks) over Christmas - not including Christmas Day, Stephen's Day or New Year's Day - but she was also entitled to 15 hours holiday pay, then he owes her 15 hours holiday pay + 10 hours pay for when the office was closed over Christmas + pay for the three Christmas Bank Holidays (above).

Every bank holiday should be paid at a standard daily rate (i.e. 1/5 of her weekly pay). If she worked a bank holiday, she gets the standard daily rate + pay for the hours she worked that day.