Recovering Money From Employers: How We Can Help

We routinely take cases to the Employment Tribunal on behalf of members, but what you might not know is that we also represent members in the County Court in money claims too. Disputes can arise over pay, benefits, severance payments and the County Court can be an effective way to recover sums that are in dispute.

In a recent case, a member was transferred to a new employer under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) regulations (TUPE). TUPE protects staff who are transferred from one business to another; that might be as a result of a merger or acquisition, or work being outsourced to a third-party company. TUPE is important because the existing employment terms and conditions are transferred over to the new employer.

Shortly after our member was transferred, the company sought to make him redundant on less favourable terms than those of his previous employer: this was a clear breach of TUPE and left the member significantly worse off. Even the previous employer wrote to confirm what the member was owed! Affinity intervened, but after the new employer still refused to pay the money and negotiations broke down, Affinity took the case to the County Court. The case is due to be heard in the next few months, but we’re confident that the Judge will rule in our member’s favour.

We routinely deal with cases where arrogant employers try to get away with bullying people into accepting less than they’re owed, hoping that employees will find it too difficult to challenge them and just give up. For people not in a union, it is understandable that they might find it too daunting or expensive a task to pursue employers for what they’re entitled to. But Affinity members can rest assured that we will go to whatever lengths are necessary to ensure members get fair treatment from their employers.

In recent years, we have pursued simultaneous holiday pay claims for several hundred members who had been underpaid by their employers. At that time, other unions were telling their members that they couldn’t help. With our intervention, members were eventually paid what they were owed.

Getting Help

If you think your employer owes you money that you’re entitled to receive, contact our 24hour Advice Team on 01234 716005 (choose Option 1). Very often, we can resolve matters through discussion and negotiation, without the need for court action. But if negotiation fails and you’re clearly owed money by your employer, we’ll take the necessary action to recover what’s owed.