Are staff always this hard to deal with

[Edenette]

Hi everyone,

Need some help/advice

I employed a member of staff on a part time basis last December, she was newly qualified and I wanted to give her a chance as she had been looking for a job for 5+ months since leaving college.
Anyway we had several complaints from clients regarding her poor quality treatments and lack of client/therapist relations skills. However I put this down to being young and needing to increase her confidence.
As this was my brand new business (I was upfront about being new to being an employer and said to talk to me if she was not happy with anything) we both went on several courses (many of which we had to travel quite a distance to) all of these courses + all expenses were paid for by me.
Things started to go wrong when she was having a procedure in hostital which i was aware of, however she did not warn me of what length of time she would require off which left me with trying to juggle both sets of clients at short notice.
I wrote to her to explain i was unhappy about her lack of comunication and she had not given me a sick line and to find out when she thought she would be able to return to work.
This caused a lot of stress!! But in the end she came in and we talked things through and sorted it all out (or so I thought).
We went on an eyelash extension course one week and the next week she handed me her letter of resignation with a huge grin on her face, she had found a new job. She gave me 1 weeks notice in the letter but said she would have her last day on Saturday (this was Thursday afternoon).
I called her and told her I wanted her to work on the Wednesday as I had to rearrange commitments for Thursday.

My problem is that she recieved no final pay as her contract states all courses must be re-embursed to the salon as she had only 11 months service and therefore under a year from each course undertaken. This has resulted in me sending her an invoce for the outstanding amount. I heard nothing from her for 3 weeks and this morning I recieved a letter saying I must pay her wages or she will take me and the salon to an industrial tribunal.
Also she has not signed her contract although (I have been informed)because she returned to work for several months after recieving it and not objecting to anything within it, it is deemed acceptance of the contract.

I could really do without all the stress along with everything else there is with running a new business, not to mention my home, husband + 2 young children. oh and Christmas!

Any advice is welcome and I will be trying not to make the same mistakes again.

Sorry to go on so long but needed to vent.

 

[honeymummy]

What a horrible girl that one is!! bloody good riddance i say!

It makes me mad!!!! im looking for work at the mo, the salon i worked in closed down.. i paid for all of my training myself and was offered no training at all at the salon in all of the three years i was there.

she obviously didnt realise that she was very lucky to get a job as a therapist, and to be sent on courses too.

Im not sure legally where you stand with the contract and courses's fees that she owes, maybe some salon owner geeks can fill you in there..

I really feel for you and you know what.. if she comes crawling back asking for a job reference or even a job.. tell her to get stuffed!!!

 

[Edenette]

Thanks for the reply,

I don't like I am doubting everone else that comes to fill her position, but I don't want to get the pi** taken out of me again.

I remember being newly qualified and wanting to get work in a salon, I just wanted to give someone a break like I got.

Hey if you fancy moving to Aberdeen give me a call.

 

[Flesh_and_Bone]

Correct... despite not signing her contract, she is deemed to have accepted her terms and conditions of employment as she hasn't objected to the contents or spoken to you about it (I think you're supposed to sign or object within 3 months or so).

Yes, you are within your rights to ask her to repay the cost of her training as long as you have stated in her contract that this is the case (I used to work in the motor trade and always advised apprentices that we would expect the repayment of some or all of their training costs if they left during or shortly after completing their training).

Seeing as her new employer will be reaping the benefits of her brand new eyelash qualification, maybe they'll contribute.

Don't worry about her taking you to tribunal... She won't once you remind her of her obligation regarding training costs (I bet she didnt even read her contract!).

Good Luck

Sx

 

[catsaremad]

I would re read the contract, does it say if the course fees are to be paid back and when they will have to be paid back ????

Then I would give acas a call and talk through with them

 

[nixnewcastle]

if she tries to take you to small claims court over it then it is good news for you because she will be the one paying the fees but you get to claim from her what she owes you (counter claim)
Hope everything works out ok for you
Maybe try taking on a work experience girl so you can get to know her before you make any huge commitments of employment and paying for courses with her

 

[mum]

Playing devils advocate here and I think you need some good advice but how can you prove you provided her with a contract if it was never signed?

An employee must have a contract and it is probably your responsibility to make sure one in place. Without a signed piece of paper she could say that the repayment issue wasn't brought to her notice. How will you prove anything different.

This may work against her though as who is to say what she may or may not be owed.

Get proper advice before it goes further and put your mind at rest that you are doing the right thing

Good luck

 

[LadyL]

what a shame, but hey move on and reap the xmas trade with some student help. send her an invoice for the training showing her the debits for her salary. Or vice versa, send her a wage slip with the debits for training. Enclose a copy of her contract highlighting any areas that you are claiming. Find something on the internet about accepting terms of contractual work and enclose that too. She has accepted her salary previously under the terms of her contract there must be an assumption made. Take down any notes you remember from her interview and try to include any explanations about the contract that she would be entering into with you/the salon. If you want to scare her off, seek solicitors advice for around £50 and get a case number to include in your final letter too. Explaining that 'without prejudice' all correspondence should now be made through your legal advisor. Hope this helps, good luck.
Lisa

 

[Martin Duffy]

I do believe that as soon as a person accepts payment for their work (i.e. a wage) it is considered tacit acceptance of the contract. An employee has the right to ask for a contract, and should they do so it must be provided within a certain timeframe, else they can take you to a tribunal for not providing it. I would get proper legal advice, but if my recall of the last course in contract law I attended is correct, you have the upper hand here.

 

[catsaremad]

But please do get this checked out, I don't think that you are allowed to deduct what she owes as you wish to unless it is written in her contract. Know as she has only worked for you for 11 months she dooes not have full employment rights so I don't know how this affects the situation.

Please please plaese seek legal advice

 

[bombini]

You have to pay her for any hours worked regardless of what she owes you. Im afraid the law is on her side and I know two people that have been in this situation and both won.

One of them was a friend in the the beauty industry about 5 years ago and the salon owner tried to hold back a full months wages due to her leaving a month after a weeks guinot training, she was actually asked to leave due to a falling out with the salon owner but the citizen advice buearu and I think acas? got involved so they paid her the wages straight away and never pursued her for the training costs.

The following link will give you all the details

Disclaw Publishing - Employment Law, unfair dismissal, redundancy pay

You can still pursue her for the training costs but in all honesty apart from the eyelash course I don't think you will have much joy getting much money back for the other courses, it would probably be worked out pro rate so you may only get 10% for each one.

No disrepect to you but it still amazes me how many employers don't know about employment rights and I think perhaps business links or trade associations should make employers more aware of this.

 

[cabby]

what a shame you had a bad time but don't judge everyone by her there are lots of nice people in this world. What go around comes around and she will get her fingers burnt at some time. You seem very nice you will find the correct person for you just trust in your own instinct as you said you didn't think she was much good from the begining:lol:

 

[persianista]

Ring Acas. They are really helpful. I have had previous staff trump up tribunerals. To date, I have never lost. I take a pragmatic stance over staff problems like yours tho. I would pay her for the days she worked, plus accrued holiday. I wouldnt deduct the cost of courses that I had chosen to send her on.
We all experience nasty staff. Please learn from each difficulty. If you take on inexperienced staff, be aware that they are inexperienced as employees too, and will be more likely to test boundaries.
Only pay for courses that are essential, and when you are happy with an employees performance.
We all get this kind of thing done to us, so chin up x