Fitter holding tools to ransom - legal bods in here

this can be resolved with a pipe to the guys head. :mad:

he is obviously being a muppet by holding your tools. what you should do is make up some claims that you can;t get work done due to the tools not being in your posession. then you can bill him for it. thats the simplest way to go about this cuz either way you can;t just let him get away with what he is doing.

if it was my tools he is holding, id be round his yard with the lads and beat the tools right out of him.

as mentioned above police won;t do jack since its a minor issue. once it resorts to violence then the police seem to pick up the pace.

don't let him get away with what he is doing though. :mad:
 
Just pay him up early and all is resolved. I had a similar situation last year when one of my employees (I only have 2 :D ) held a £1200 laptop until he was paid, so I just paid him up early
 
ManCuBuS said:
Just pay him up early and all is resolved. I had a similar situation last year when one of my employees (I only have 2 :D ) held a £1200 laptop until he was paid, so I just paid him up early

My only problem is one of trust. If he is resorting to this behaviour at this stage (esp as he knows that anyone who has left my employment has always beeen paid) who's to say he will be willing to hand over the tools at all? Then I will have lost all leverage.

To cap it all, I have sent alternative fitters to the job he started this morning and they have phoned in to report that there has been about 3 hours work done in the three days he has been there.

It now appears that I am going to have to bring in a subcontractor to finish the job over the weekend, the cost of which will be triple the wages he is due. According to my employment manual, when an employee is in notice period and does something to cost the company money, we are entitled to withhold his wages to set off against said cost and sue him for the extra which is actually what is going to happen. looks like he has been taking the proverbial for the last few days. According to the client, he would turn up for a few hours each day and spend all his time on the phone with his new employer. looks like it has gone on my phone bill too! This puts it in a whole new light now. He is certainly not goin to be paid his last weeks wages and I need to recover more from him incl the tools.
 
Good news - reported it to the police who have agreed that it's theft.

Half an hour ago, they said they will contact the fitter. 5 mins ago, he has phoned to say he is bringing in the tools this afternoon.

Many thanks to the boys in blue !!
 
doopydug said:
Good news - reported it to the police who have agreed that it's theft.

Half an hour ago, they said they will contact the fitter. 5 mins ago, he has phoned to say he is bringing in the tools this afternoon.

Many thanks to the boys in blue !!


good work.
 
My only problem is one of trust. If he is resorting to this behaviour at this stage (esp as he knows that anyone who has left my employment has always beeen paid) who's to say he will be willing to hand over the tools at all? Then I will have lost all leverage.

To cap it all, I have sent alternative fitters to the job he started this morning and they have phoned in to report that there has been about 3 hours work done in the three days he has been there.

It now appears that I am going to have to bring in a subcontractor to finish the job over the weekend, the cost of which will be triple the wages he is due. According to my employment manual, when an employee is in notice period and does something to cost the company money, we are entitled to withhold his wages to set off against said cost and sue him for the extra which is actually what is going to happen. looks like he has been taking the proverbial for the last few days. According to the client, he would turn up for a few hours each day and spend all his time on the phone with his new employer. looks like it has gone on my phone bill too! This puts it in a whole new light now. He is certainly not goin to be paid his last weeks wages and I need to recover more from him incl the tools.

That does put a different slant on it. There is every possibility he will forfeit his wages and keep the tools to help him in his new job. I would assume that the tools will cost more to replace than the guys wages?

Unfortunately you are in a PITA situation. You have a number of options available to you but depending on the circumstances one will be better than the others.

Firstly, go around with his wages and demand the return of all the tools in exchange for his wages.

Secondly, withhold his wages and accept the loss of the tools.

Thirdly raise a claim in the small claims court - this will be long, drawn out and protracted. He will claim that you are mistreated him, threatened him etc etc and its impossible to say how it will end up.

My preferred option would be to pursue this using option one with witnesses. If he refuses to hand over the tools advise him that you will contact the police. If he still refuses call the police whilst standing in front of him - use the local number not 999 obviously.

In regards to him not working - put it down to experience - getting the money back from having to bring on a sub contractor will be a nightmare I would imagine.

The main thing it comes down to is how much money is involved, how much time and effort can you afford to invest in resolving this and from a very detached perspective what effort is justified in the long term?

Horrible situation and I do feel for you. Remove the fact that you have been shafted from your decision making - personal feelings cannot really be a part of it - easier said than done obviously.

Anyway hope all goes well.
 
We pay for and use Mentor Employment Services - available from most banks. Any query relating to employment law will be answered and advice given as to what action you're legally aloud to take. We've found it extremely valuable.

May be of interest to people for future reference.

We use Natwest as this is who we bank with: http://www.natwest.com/business02.a.../INSURANCE_PROTECTION/EMPLOYMENT_LAW_SERVICES

Glad you got it sorted though.
 
I hope you are still going to withhold his wages and sue him for all the money he has cost you?? He has breached his contract by not working his notice and so this is grounds enough to withhold wages but now with the added costs on top (sub-contractor to do his work, phone bills for personal calls) you need to teach this guy a lesson..
 
Docaroo said:
I hope you are still going to withhold his wages and sue him for all the money he has cost you?? He has breached his contract by not working his notice and so this is grounds enough to withhold wages but now with the added costs on top (sub-contractor to do his work, phone bills for personal calls) you need to teach this guy a lesson..
I would definitely want to teach the guy a lesson but is the court case worth the extra hassle?
 
The police won't help you. 'Civil Dispute' is their get out clause for everything.

I once legally parked my car on a public road only to have somebody else park his car right behind me preventing me from moving my car. The guy then presumably wandered off into town. I called the police who informed me they couldnt promise any attendance as it was a civil dispute.

I then had to sit in my car for THREE HOURS awaiting the idiot to return to his car.
 
[TW]Fox said:
The police won't help you. 'Civil Dispute' is their get out clause for everything.

I once legally parked my car on a public road only to have somebody else park his car right behind me preventing me from moving my car. The guy then presumably wandered off into town. I called the police who informed me they couldnt promise any attendance as it was a civil dispute.

I then had to sit in my car for THREE HOURS awaiting the idiot to return to his car.


sorry was that you fox :)
 
Nicos Rex said:
Without going into a lengthy discussion of the definition of theft, suffice to say that at such an early stage in the proceedings there is no way that the OP will be able to "get the police to go round and retrieve" anything. It may not be equitable. it may not be logical, but it's the law.

Contact the police by all means, you might get lucky and be able to convice the call-taker that police will attend. If you manage to do this, expect a call back about 5 minutes later from a controller sitting in front of a screen with 30 unassigned jobs and 4 officers to deal with them. You can be fairly confident that whatever you say the words "civil dispute, advice given" will be being typed on the log.

I guess he got lucky this time then :p
 
[TW]Fox said:
Even you have more taste than to buy an orange Nissan Note :p


5MM.JPG



looks pretty nice :) might have to look at one for taxi duties :) :)
 
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