I'm currently an employee of Crystal Umbrella (Unitum Operations) who are going belly-up as I type; end client has an invoice raised to them for a weeks' work but this hasn't been settled by the end client to Crystal or by Unitum to me, and I'm looking like I'll be out of pocket once Unitum goes into liquidation - which appears to be a foredrawn conclusion after the meeting of creditors tomorrow.
I'm looking at ways to recoup this pay.
So far thoughts are:
1) I'll be quite a longstanding employee of Crystal - my original employment contract goes back a fair few years for my sins. If they have folded, can I claim statutory redundancy from the Govt. redundancy service? (!). I realise this might be morally questionable, but would it be technically legitimate? A couple of salient points; Crystal (Unitum) did send out an email proposing that Pendragon could take us on on the same terms and conditions (though they're not related companies if you believe the spiel, so I don't think it constitutes an offer of a job that I'd have to consider). And I became a company director of my own Ltd co a couple of months ago before this kicked off; not sure if that is a problem for redundancy payout.
2) Pendragon have offered to re-raise the invoice and pay me if I set up with them as my umbrella. I'm reluctant to do this as I was in the process of going Ltd anyway so it would only be for this one invoice; but it does raise the question if they have any kind of right to raise the invoice, couldn't my new co. just do that instead? There is still the issue of the invoice which was previously raised to the client which I would have thought the liquidators would be chasing. However, on further investigation that invoice is actually payable to Pendragon anyway(!). And in a further twist; when I asked Pendragon about this they said they won't be able to collect on this old invoice (perhaps as it is from Pendragon Consultancy trading as Crystal Umbrella, which I think puts them in a sticky position... as it is claimed that Crystal Umbrella is still the trading name of Unitum... who are folding... and furthermore it is now claimed that Pendragon are NOT related to Crystal... ho hum).
Anyway, any advice or thoughts gratefully received.
I'm looking at ways to recoup this pay.
So far thoughts are:
1) I'll be quite a longstanding employee of Crystal - my original employment contract goes back a fair few years for my sins. If they have folded, can I claim statutory redundancy from the Govt. redundancy service? (!). I realise this might be morally questionable, but would it be technically legitimate? A couple of salient points; Crystal (Unitum) did send out an email proposing that Pendragon could take us on on the same terms and conditions (though they're not related companies if you believe the spiel, so I don't think it constitutes an offer of a job that I'd have to consider). And I became a company director of my own Ltd co a couple of months ago before this kicked off; not sure if that is a problem for redundancy payout.
2) Pendragon have offered to re-raise the invoice and pay me if I set up with them as my umbrella. I'm reluctant to do this as I was in the process of going Ltd anyway so it would only be for this one invoice; but it does raise the question if they have any kind of right to raise the invoice, couldn't my new co. just do that instead? There is still the issue of the invoice which was previously raised to the client which I would have thought the liquidators would be chasing. However, on further investigation that invoice is actually payable to Pendragon anyway(!). And in a further twist; when I asked Pendragon about this they said they won't be able to collect on this old invoice (perhaps as it is from Pendragon Consultancy trading as Crystal Umbrella, which I think puts them in a sticky position... as it is claimed that Crystal Umbrella is still the trading name of Unitum... who are folding... and furthermore it is now claimed that Pendragon are NOT related to Crystal... ho hum).
Anyway, any advice or thoughts gratefully received.
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