Does anyone know where you stand if you don't have a contract? I'm not in that job anymore but they say i owe them money, but i never had a contract with them.

Try Sheffield Law Centre
they are very good for advice in all fields

You were entiltled to a contract but since you have left the job it is somewhat irrelevant.

It all depends upon what they say you owe and for what and how reasonable their claim is. They may go to court if it is a significant amount.

Citizens Advice Bureau is probably your easiest first contact.

The law states that an employer has to give you a contract within the first two months of work. This is of course as long as you were not temping through an agency, (the contract would be through them in that case), or as long as you were not classed as a contractor or on a self employed basis. DTI (http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/individual/statement-pl700.pdf) document here.

K x

The ones who will give you advice, and even more important they will back it up in court if need be, are ACAS and their advice in my experience has always been fair to both sides.

http://www.acas.org.uk/

Try that and see if they can help:thumbsup:

Is it all that relevant as to whether you have a contract or not.:loopy:

If you owe someone money, you owe em money....what you think if I lent you a ton i'd give you a contract..?

They may just go easy on you and do it all above board, me personally if you tried to rip me off, well it'd be messy..let's leave it @ that shall we...:thumbsup:

Definitely go the law centre, keep phoning them, if you get any sign of court summonses then leave a clear message so they will prioritise you for an answer. They are very busy but will help if you clearly need it. Also could go to a CAB but they dont all have specialists, and the money issue is a bit worrying.

IF you have had training or equipment supplied by them you need to check what you agreed to when you started working. Not having a written contract or terms and conditions makes this harder to be sure of.

You do however have a contract its a verbal one and its legal and it stands. Also you are protected by the Employment rights Act, working time regs, health and safety law etc. Your real difficulty is that you don't have a record of your terms and conditions and you may have to fight them off over the money issue. Of course if you do owe it you'll have to pay it, but take advice as you may not owe it. You may also have other issues such as unfair dismissal or being forced to leave your job, failure to provide written terms or failure to provide proper evidence of pay and tax details is also worth taking up.

Having a representative from a law centre or advice centre can make a world of difference. Also if they know you have a legal advisor they are less likely to push if they don't have a really strong case. IF they do keep it going and it goes to court you can do it yourself with help, but try and get representative. You can also take them to court if you have a case against them. Its called an employment tribunal and 3 people with expertise will sit like magistrates do and hear the case in a small formal room near the cathedral in town centre. If you can avoid getting this far do. You may also end up in small claims court over the money, but unlikely if there's also and employment issue as by default that means it goes to tribunal.

The law is there so don't be afraid to rely on it. And don't be put off by having to wait for appointments or hang on the phone, the longer you leave it the more likely it is you will lose out.

As a priority also collect up any evidence you have, diaries, paperwork, letters, e-mails memo's, sit down and try to get some facts down such as when you started, when you left, your pay details, any problems you had such as pay, work conditions, disagreements etc, in particular the details of how they came to claim you owe them money, especially what you believed the arrangements to be when you started and a resume of events in date order would be useful. This will get things clear in your head and any evidence will help advice workers understand whats happening and may be important if you go to tribunal.

You may also be entitled to compensation in certain circumstances, so do get advice just in case. You only get what your entitled to though, and if you do owe them money you 'll have to cough up of course, but check before you pay anything over.