My wife was just offered a job at a thai eatery last week and it turns out they are only paying £125 a week for a 38 hour week and they never bothered to ask for a National Insurance Number and I was wondering what can be done about them because that is not even minimum wage

They are trying to pull a fast one Steve;my wife has been getting £170 for 32hrs.
Its been cash in hand;but I think she has to start paying nats ins. and tax now.
Don,t know what the cash in hand thing is about maybes they wanted to see if she hung aroung for more than a few weeks before making it legit?
I know the uk employees have to pay from the start;regardless if they stay 1 week or 6 mths.
Its hard,boring work..so the labour turnover has been pretty high(according to my wife).
Maybes someone can enlighten me as to employment/tax regs.with regards 'casual'non-uk labour?

Getting paid cash in hand is not illegal from the eployees point of view unless claiming benefits. Any payments will be deemed as net of tax and ni and the employer will be responsible for paying ni ant tax to the inland revenue as well as having to explain why they haven't already done that.

£125 for 38 hours ia below the national minimum of 5.35. She could take the job then threaten to take them to a tribunal unless they coughed up.

Peter

I believe that the recent Tax Office decision is that tips are taxable and therefore included in the calculation of wages but are not liable to NI.

They could argue that the minimum wage is achievable with tips.


BigRed

well she called up today and asked the question and was told thats what thai restruants pay and told not to bother comming in again. I am really not in the mood to let them get away with it and also she said to Lek that they pay the taxes at source but did not provide a payslip. Where is Tobias when you need him? Is there anything I can do to basically get them into trouble

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Is there anything I can do to basically get them into trouble

Yes - report them to your local tax office.

Peter

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They could argue that the minimum wage is achievable with tips

Only if they guaranteed the tips.

Peter

No I will be calling to report them and if anyone would like to boycott this restaruant its called Su-Thai in coldharbour lane in camberwell

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Originally posted by Siam Steve:
No I will be calling to report them and if anyone would like to boycott this restaruant its called Su-Thai in coldharbour lane in camberwell

You can try this out Steve...

National Minimum Wage Helpline 0845 6000678

Weekdays 9.00am to 5pm
Saturday Closed
Sunday Closed
Bank Holidays Closed.

Provides advice to Employers and Employees on the rules of National Minimum Wage. It also deals with complaints from employees who are being paid below the threshold.

I think this maybe a case of paying Thai wages, complain and you are shown the door.

Its kind of ironic that they don't provide those needing assistance with a freecall number!

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I think this maybe a case of paying Thai wages, complain and you are shown the door

but this is the UK?

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Getting paid cash in hand is not illegal from the eployees point of view unless claiming benefits.

You can get advice on employee rights from http://www.acas.org.uk/ but you may find that you will be denied these rights as you knowingly received “cash in hand” payments.

I did a rather lengthy post on this subject a while ago dealing with all the legal issues - not got time to search for it now, but the answers are already in the forum somewhere.

Yep it is in the UK and I have reported them and will pursue this further. She deed not knowingly take cash in hand as she asked the woman and she said to her she is paying tax for her