not getting paid

Lolnouska

I'm writing on behalf of my friend,

Basically she is with a modelling agency which I won't name, but she did promotional work for them in April (3 weeks of work) and is owed roughly around 300euro.
After the end of April, not getting paid they notitified her and said the agency will get paid when the Sunday World (their clients) pays them, but was told she would get paid before the end of May.
Come the end of May, there was still no sign of getting paid, even though they confirmed with her that she would definatly get paid on the 28th.
She rang numerous times after that and they never gave her a straight answer, lots of apologies but no solutions or immediate action.

She was then told to contact their accounts via email, and CC to the director of the agency. Other girls who did the promo work have been paid and others (including my friend) has still not been paid.

It's been 7 weeks since the job, which accounts have confirmed in response to the email and this is when she is due to be paid. They then went on to say they don't know why she hasnt been paid for the two weeks and that they would look into the matter and get back to her at the end of the week, which has gone by already.

Is there some sort of cut off time when you have to get paid, because she keeps ringing and demanding her money and they do nothing about it, so her parents are saying they're going to have to take them to court to get her well deserved money.

So really what I'm asking is what else can she do that doesn't involve drastic measures? She's a student like myself and is going away on holidays and just needs money. and theyre just not being very fair, paying some girls and not paying others...

sorry if this is long and confusing, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

HR Advice

Hi, does your friend have a contract with this agency? Or is she seen by them as self employed (she pays her own tax and insurance). If she signed something she may have some recourse.