Payment Dispute between Myself and Company A

[dforces]

Hi there I finished working for Company A on May 4th 2009

Company A > Agency > Payment Processing Company > Me

My contract was supposed to end on May 28th 2009, however on May 1st Company A came to me and said my work had not been up to scratch and that they would be terminating my contract effective immediately. This was complete rubbish, what had actually happened was that half way through the project they decided they wanted to code the system in a completely different language, one which I was not skilled with and so they decided they would terminate my contract and get someone in who could code in that language. But hey I was ok with that and they assured me that they would carry on paying me up until the end 28th May (which was the last day of my contract).

There were some timesheets outstanding for April which I sent through. Only 2 weeks were approved, the other 2 weeks were not. These were the week ending the 10th and the 17th. Out of those 10 days I worked 6 days at a rate of 190/day which means I am owed £1140. When I questioned this with my agency they informed me that they were asked by the Company A to compile a list of all my hours which I had billed through the agency system and were waiting for the Company A to look through those hours to make sure I hadn't claimed for hours during the year for which I had not worked and if I had they would deduct this from the £1140 they owed me, which I accepted.

It has now been nearly 3 weeks and I have had very little response from the Company A or from my agency. My agency tell me "their hands are tied". I also have a feeling that they are going to try and get out of paying me for the month of May they promised in the de-briefing so I decided to post here to see what my legal stance on this was. The total owed comes to 18 days of billing which is £3420 so the total owed would be £3420 + £1140 = £4560

Also there is a clause in my contact that they have to give a months notice, however as my contract was terminated by them im not sure what the legal situation is.

Can someone advise me what to do about this. The agency have suddently gone VERY quiet about all this and Im getting no response from my former boss or anyone at the company.

[NotAllThere]

Get your payment processing company to start dunning.

[BlasterBates]

It does look like they´ve pulled a fast one. I would see a lawyer. Unfortunately it looks like your word against their´s. If you have a witness you´d probably have a good chance. If your work isnt up to scratch they´re entitled to withold payment, so you have to prove otherwise. Probably worth at least a couple of threatening letters. Send a demand and give them 14 days to pay, and if that doesn´t work get the lawyer onto them. Your fight is with the agency. Signed timesheets must be paid, because that is acceptance of your work. Unsigned timesheets will be more difficult to contest.

Good luck.

[dforces]

It does look like they´ve pulled a fast one. I would see a lawyer. Unfortunately it looks like your word against their´s. If you have a witness you´d probably have a good chance. If your work isnt up to scratch they´re entitled to withold payment, so you have to prove otherwise. Probably worth at least a couple of threatening letters. Send a demand and give them 14 days to pay, and if that doesn´t work get the lawyer onto them. Your fight is with the agency. Signed timesheets must be paid, because that is acceptance of your work. Unsigned timesheets will be more difficult to contest.

Good luck.

Hi there and thanks for the reply unfortunately the timesheets have not been signed they are being held at the clients offices. It is the client that is witholding payment despite the fact I have worked those hours.

Do you still reccomend sending out letters?

[Turion]

You're down £4560, right? A couple of hours and few quid spent on legal letters etc might recover that money. You stand to gain a lot or lose very little more. Well worth a punt in my opinion.

PS: Signed timesheets are like cash. Don't leave a client site without them next time.