rights to pay with no signed contract?

artyeva

i'll try to explain this as best i can:

my husband works with a company - small family run company - but was never asked at the time to sign a written contract. he's worked for them for just short of 6 years, never out due to illness etc.. the company is waiting to hear about a big contract job coming up, but it's delayed for various reasons, and no one has any idea on when the start date will be. in the mean time over the past month the smaller jobs have all but dried up, mostly due to the boss not following up on leads, etc.. the spell of bad weather that we had in december hits, and the boss tells him to stay at home - too dangerous to be out in the weather [outdoor work]. then he tells him there's nothing on, so stay at home for another few weeks. should the boss be paying him for the time he's been told to stay at home due to lack of work?

the bad weather spell was paid due to holidays being used up so that was ok. or else lay him off so he can claim some sort of social welfare payment? surely you should be paid if you're a permanent full time employee, like if i worked in a shop but no customers came in on a particular monday my boss wouldn't have the right not to pay me for the day, right? what's his options of getting that money back seeing as no written contract exists? and also, is it against some regulation that an employer doesn't supply his employees with written contracts?