Am I being underpaid by my boss ?

[James2829]

hey guys
I was just wondering if I am by any chance being underpaid by my boss
I am a labourer for a 2-1 bricklaying gang I work hard all day that we never stop and have a break because he kicks up a fuss about it I get paid about 280 a week after tax he’s never told me how much I earn a day either I have asked but he always avoids the question I drive the forklift on site even though I don’t have a license to do so I get paid no extra to do this either I point up mix up move brick blocks mix up clean up when I can I’m self employed so I don’t get holiday pay
I suffers with severely bad chest pains that I was rushed into hospital from the site I was working at and advised to take 2 weeks of work to recover but for the 2 weeks I had of I was being constantly hassled being told to come into work even though I physically couldn’t I just want your guys opinion please on what you would do ?
Thanks

 

[sodthisforfun]

Apart from go work for someone else would be the easiest solution, can I ask if you've worked full time for this guy for long?

 

[Nozzle]

Driving a fork lift unlicencsed? Eeeak! Whoever asks you to do that needs their head looking at. Cover your ass, make certain you're not doing this on your own back, "because it's easier". If it means you have to move pallets of blocks about 5 blocks at a time, do so. Refuse to use that truck unlicenced just to make your bosses job cheaper.

Then they can send you to get a licence. Then you have more work options

Nozzle

 

[motorbiking]

Who pays your tax and NI?
How many hours do you do?
Do you exclusively work for him full time?

If your are genuinely self employed then you should have a day/hr rate agreed and you should be invoicing him for payments. Driving the fork lift as a self employed person means it’s on you as much as him.

My rough calcs say you earn about £16,500 per year. gross

It’s possible you have a back claim for holiday and sick pay

 

[sodthisforfun]

I would like to know if you are really self-employed. Are you contracted? Or do you run yourself as a business? How long have you worked for this guy? Sounds odd but the difference between them can mean if you are entitled to breaks. Who pays your tax? I don't know how, as a self-employed person you don't know your rate.

When you've taken time off sick, they are allowed, as a member of staff, to contact you but not hassle. Once a week would be suffice. To phone you a lot is harassment, especially as you are supposed to be self-employed.

It's illegal to get you to drive without a licence if you are driving the forklift on a public highway but not if on site providing you've had adequate training. However, if you are self employed then you need public liability insurance I should imagine as you're responsible.

 

[SirGalahad]

How much do you value your employer?

Do you have close family and friends who are willing to approach your Boss?

 

[Notch7]

You are almost certainly on CIS or at least contracted on that basis. The HMRC would say you are employed by definition, but almost all subbies in the construction trade are CIS, so you are self employed, you should be invoicing him for your work and he should give you CIS statements:

Do you give him invoices and are you registered as a sub contractor on the CIS scheme? -if you are then you will a UTR (unique tax reference). And he will give a statement showing your CIS deductions.

your gross is £70 per day £350 per week less 20% = £280

if you arent verified then you would have 30% tax deducted, but you would still have to be registered or the HMRC wouldnt be able to log the deductions to your NI number.

I cant advice on whether your rate is good or not....It depends on location, age experience etc etc.

In the South East, £70/day would be a basic labourer

My guess is your problem is working on new build -Im assuming you are, where its all about speed.

If you have ambition to learn a trade yourself and become a builder, then go and work for a small building company working on domestic sites. You will learn more and the atmosphere will probably be more friendly.

Of course, you might think you work hard, your boss may think you are lazy.....we dont know the answer.

If you are motivated and have initiative then find somewhere else to work where you are appreciated and can learn more. Young labourers sometimes have no initiative and will stand around doing nothing if in between jobs instead of finding some tidying up to do. Others work solidly all day long......If your boss has had too many of the former he might have a negative view of all labourers, sometimes with pressure of work, being appreciative of hard effort is sometimes taken for granted.

I hate to say it but having employed young guys, there are too many that turn up late, be lazy and have a huge sense of entitlement. I had one recently that was either late or didnt make it to work on a Monday for about 6 weeks....then he came and asked me for a pay rise. Im sure you arent like that, but it makes us oldies cynical

 

[bobsuerita]

Like said depending where in UK you are
Labourer £70-£100
Hoddy £90-£150
Sounds like he is taking the pish out of you
plenty of work out there move on and let him find another mug

 

[Notch7]

Train to be a plumber, they love plumbers on this site.

 

[Ian H]

Train to be a plumber, they love plumbers on this site.

I heard you were a nurse.

 

[^woody^]

Find someone else to work for, your boss is taking the ****.

A good hoddy would be on near to a three-way split if on price work in a 2:1 gang. Or on 2/3 to 3/4 the dayrate of the brickies.

You are doing yourself no favours long term. No NI = no future pension, no holiday pay = no hollidays, work all hours = you'll be a wreck in your 40's if not ill before that, and all this for less than half of what you should be getting while lining his pockets.

 

[James2829]

Apart from go work for someone else would be the easiest solution, can I ask if you've worked full time for this guy for long?

Yeh I have worked for him for 2 1/2 years now and yeh it’s full time

 

[James2829]

Find someone else to work for, your boss is taking the ****.

A good hoddy would be on near to a three-way split if on price work in a 2:1 gang. Or on 2/3 to 3/4 the dayrate of the brickies.

You are doing yourself no favours long term. No NI = no future pension, no holiday pay = no hollidays, work all hours = you'll be a wreck in your 40's if not ill before that, and all this for less than half of what you should be getting while lining his pockets.

Yeh that’s what a lot of people are telling me he use to pay me 240 after tax before for th work that I do for him can’t ever have time of because he gets on my back about it baring in mind he has days of every week I got told that the site manager said he would pay me to use the forklift even though I dont have a licence but I have never seen any of that money since he said it never made a change to my pay so hes pocketing that to

 

[James2829]

I would like to know if you are really self-employed. Are you contracted? Or do you run yourself as a business? How long have you worked for this guy? Sounds odd but the difference between them can mean if you are entitled to breaks. Who pays your tax? I don't know how, as a self-employed person you don't know your rate.

When you've taken time off sick, they are allowed, as a member of staff, to contact you but not hassle. Once a week would be suffice. To phone you a lot is harassment, especially as you are supposed to be self-employed.

It's illegal to get you to drive without a licence if you are driving the forklift on a public highway but not if on site providing you've had adequate training. However, if you are self employed then you need public liability insurance I should imagine as you're responsible.

Yes he says I am self employed and 2 1/2 years I have worked with him he pays my tax he never give me a payslip I ask him for them every month but I don’t get them until weeks later



And with the time being of sick I couldn’t physically work due to serious chest pains and being rushed into a&e from the site they advised me to take time of and rest but he was on my back constantly trying to guilt trip me into coming to work and ignore my doctors note


And the forklift saga is like another guilt trip-me I have refused before to drive it because I didn’t feel safe and trusting myself to drive the machine on that day because they didn’t do enough work because we didn’t have a forklift driver on site even though I was their from 7:30 am -5:30pm I only got paid for half a day I don’t lnow if it seems like I’m moaning about it but I don’t think that’s fair ?

 

[James2829]

Driving a fork lift unlicencsed? Eeeak! Whoever asks you to do that needs their head looking at. Cover your ass, make certain you're not doing this on your own back, "because it's easier". If it means you have to move pallets of blocks about 5 blocks at a time, do so. Refuse to use that truck unlicenced just to make your bosses job cheaper.

Then they can send you to get a licence. Then you have more work options

Nozzle

The site manager is cheap he won’t send me to do my licence I’m okay at driving it and doing the basic but when it get complicated I tell them I don’t feel comfortable in myself to do it but if I don’t he will moan at me and start getting angry even though I’m not the forklift driver ..... we havnt even got a forklift driver on site !