Help!! Employment Rights!!

clareyfarey

Hi, I hope this is the right forum. My situation in a huge nutshell is this

I was employed for the guts of ten years in this particular construction company. My employer was as dodgy as they come rarely did we get payslips, no contract of employment in place and avoided paying the employee's pension contributions.
In August '08 I was involved in a car accident on way to work which literally put me on my back for 6 months im still out due to my injuries. Up until February '09 I had been chasing my Employer for holiday pay owed and for mortgage insurance forms to be filled out but was constantly fobbed off. March arrives and I am informed by a co-worker that he and the others have been made redundant.Alarm bells are ringing so i try again to contact my employer but again no luck.Im pretty angry at this stage so i go to my local citizens information office to get help, I'm put in touch with a local councillor who eventually got my employer on the phone and was told that he would sort me out with everything P45, P60, redundancy etc. A month passes, nothing.
Angrier still i called into another Citizens information centre who sent him some letters requesting my employer to inform them of his status and that one of his employee's is fairly miffed!! Again nothing for i months until last week the citizen info. officer rang me to tell me that my employer had informed him that he had heard nothing from me since my accident and had assumed i left the company, also that i never sent him sick certs!!
The citizens info. officer said that i would'nt have much of a case due to the fact that i did'nt send my employer sick certs. My employer never paid sick leave in the decade that i worked for him i wouldnt know what a sick cert was if i saw one!! Surely this guy cant get away with what he's doing to me.
Sorry for the spiel but im very frustrated with this situation any help or advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Clareyfarey

Victor

Talk to these guys http://www.cwps.ie/

You might consider talking to a solicitor, time may be of the essence in more ways than one.

mood

I never got sick pay either but ALWAYS sent i sick cert when out sick. Get solicitor asap. Could you look up old phone bill to prove you phoned your employer etc? What about witnesses.

clareyfarey

mood wrote: »

I never got sick pay either but ALWAYS sent i sick cert when out sick. Get solicitor asap. Could you look up old phone bill to prove you phoned your employer etc? What about witnesses.

I am under the impression that you'd only send them to employer if you were seeking some sort of sick pay from him, am i wrong? As for Witnesses, I do have that local councillor who spoke with my employer...there was no mention of sick certs back then, and my co-workers of course would vouch for me.

mood

I not 100% sure but I always get cert even if it is just to prove I wasn't dossing.

maxwell smart

Your contract should specify if you are required to furnish a sick cert or not when sick. You would have had to make some contact to tell your employer that you were not able to work.(I'm assuming you did this).
As you don't have a contract of employment, then the basic statutory contract applies to your employment.
As far as I can remember, the statutory contract does not state anything about sick pay, except that you should have written notification of the company sick policy.
As said already, you need to contact a solicitor, but as you were in a car acccident I'm sure you already have one? You should talk to him/her.

Wishbone Ash

clareyfarey wrote: »

I am under the impression that you'd only send them to employer if you were seeking some sort of sick pay from him

Sick Certs are necessary to account for your absence regardless of whether you are getting paid or not.

If sick certs weren't required, there would be nothing to prevent an employee from operating their own 'flexi' time - work one week, take next week off and so on.

Otis Driftwood

clareyfarey wrote: »

I was employed for the guts of ten years in this particular construction company. My employer was as dodgy as they come rarely did we get payslips, no contract of employment in place and avoided paying the employee's pension contributions.

I dont think you have a leg to stand on to be honest and you only have yourself to blame.

Im not trying to be harsh by the way,just stating whats fairly obvious given your OP.

artful_codger

hmmm, so OP was happy to work for 10 years and turn a blind eye to possible tax avoidance by employer (no payslips) when the times were good, but now that things have changed the OP is demanding all her employment rights.

OP deserves everything she gets imo (i.e nothing).

Wishbone Ash

artful_codger wrote: »

hmmm, so OP was happy to work for 10 years and turn a blind eye to possible tax avoidance by employer (no payslips) when the times were good, but now that things have changed the OP is demanding all her employment rights.

OP deserves everything she gets imo (i.e nothing).

Why do you presume the OP is female?

DO'Carlo/Wex

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Sick Certs are necessary to account for your absence regardless of whether you are getting paid or not.

If sick certs weren't required, there would be nothing to prevent an employee from operating their own 'flexi' time - work one week, take next week off and so on.

Snap brother!
Unless you were mngmnt. or office you didn't get "sick days" which are open to abuse.
However woe-betide those on the floor who didn't bring in a sick cert. I always went to Dr. for 1 even if i was only out a day or 2.
The S.W. Certs themselves don't kick-in unless your' 4 or more days out & iirc it's only 2/3 of your' weekly wage. 2/3 of half-nothing=???/

Back to OP though, you're definitely entitled to Holiday Pay & are CIF any use?