endure

I think the main frustration is that majority of people who post about things that have been asked a million times before fail to use the search function before asking the question. When the typical questions get asked a thousand times over its hard not to lose the enthusiasm and find it annoying.

However I do appreciate the fact that everyone has to learn one way or another and if you don't ask, you don't get (or learn in this case!)

Also, some of the questions are a little bit ridiculous. I am faced every day with scenarios where I get ripped off or whatever but I just use my common sense, follow my instincts and act accordingly.

"Ohnoes I went to a Sunday carvery and they didn't have the meats on that they advertised!" - Surely you would just follow your instincts. You either complain and refuse to pay or whatever or you can pay and just pass it off as a learning curve and never to eat there again. Why do you need to make a post about it on a forum?!

A guilty person who is wasting this much money, time, and human lives, just to clear his own tarnished name, is  an arrogant and unrepentant wastrel.  A guilty person who commits these actions at state-level in a poor developing-world nation that is socially and economically fragile at this time, is an uncaring despot.
He could have walked away with his stolen money & lived out his days in the type of luxury that most people can not even dream of, yet he hovers vulture-like over this nation, fermenting divisions, unbalancing people's lives, and uprooting the first green shoots of a fledgling democracy.

How Did Thaivisa Help You?.......


Its taught me restraint!

bobl, on 2012-05-27 07:21:06, said:

I understood that the Raspery PI is done by non profit organization by the idea to provide cheap computers for people who don't have too much money to play with.

Now some people get them selves to the queue line with an idea to sell the items later on with profit. These people make others to wait longer for their devices to maket themselves a few euros. I compare this activity to people who buy concert/game tickets and sell those in the front of the event with higher price. It's wrong in my opinion.

kerryk, on 2012-05-26 13:46:34, said:

For sure.  Regardless of one's convictions, one or a culture simply should not place a higher value on a wild animal than on any human life.  Then again, we have cultures that believe burning someone to death for stealing potatoes is acceptable even though that person it their family is starving.  Little wonder why countries adhering to such philosophies are disasters culturally, economically, morally, and in every other conceivable manner.

So it's OK to shoot people without a trial for killing an animal?

Edit.  I should have said big cat.

So it's OK to shoot people without a trial for killing a big cat?

Summary:

Safety standards in Thailand found not up to scratch.  Major surprise.

Why not cut to the chase ... we all know what the end result is
Let the guy back, give him his money back ... make him the PM
let him do everything he wants, ley him exact his revenge on all
opponents ... then another coup ... deja vue ...all over again
This country is one big merry go round .... for some reason people
think they can do the exact same thing and end up with different results

For those who say nothing will ever change in Thailand, I disagree.  I have seen a lot of changes over the years and I have confidence change will continue.  It doesn’t happen overnight, not here, not anywhere.

Think of all the things we did or ate as children that society now considers reckless and unacceptable.  It took generations to turn us into the weak dependent citizen we are today.  Thailand will end up in the same boat but it may take a little longer.  They are a developing country after all.

How about a generic warning that life is filled with danger and death is inevitable?

I thought that this particular thread was about Homophobia and Prejudice IN THAILAND. I accept that this sub-forum is world-wide but would it be possible for threads which are specifically about THAILAND to be kept about THAILAND rather than diverted to the inevitable and rather tedious (for some of us) subject of American politics?

The issues on this thread are all over the place. Let's stick to the OP.

The OP has stated that his legally landed wife is working 60 hours per week at a rate of £3.00 per hour. His wife is entitled to work in the UK and she is entitled to protection from abuse.

I've been spending some time researching this answer today and I should point out that I am a UK employer, and I have spoken to my sister who is a Director of Human Resources for the NHS, as well as other family members including a Company Secretary of 26 years standing, an industrial accountant, and a Company Director of 27 years standing who has recently retired and taken to helping out at the Citizens Advice Bureau. The Company Director referred me to the Citizens Advice Guide as it is user friendly, here it is

http://www.advicegui..._employment.htm

I'm only concerned with the OP, I have lifted the relevant passages from the guide, they are all in bold.The first part we need to be concerned with is whether or not the lady is an employee or not, here is the source of the problem.....

Are you an employee or self employed.......
It is very important to find out what your employment status is. Many employment rights, such as the right not to be unfairly dismissed, and the right to redundancy pay, rely on you being an employee........
It is common for an employer to call someone self-employed, or a ‘casual worker’ or a ‘trainee’, when that person is really an employee. Employers do this in order to avoid having to pay tax and national insurance for their employees and to try to avoid them having employment rights.

Now here is the definition of an employee, it may shock some of you.....

How to tell if someone is an employee or not
The following factors will all help you decide whether you are an employee or self-employed when you want to find out what your employment rights are:-
does your employer tell you what work to do and how to do it (even if you are left alone to actually carry out the work). Does your employer provide you with work, or do you have to go out and find your own work to do. If your employer controls the work to be done and provides the work, you will be an employee
how you are paid. If you are paid a regular amount of pay at regular intervals, rather than being paid per job done, this indicates you are an employee

The reason why this definition is so important is that it prevents malicious abuse of employees by rogue employers. The OP's wife is absolutely, and have no doubt about it, an employee. The HMRC would not accept any notion that she was self employed and working permanently in the restaurant.

Okay, here is the next shock for many of you......A contract of employment can be written, or it can be verbal.

As soon as an employer offers a verbal statement of employment it becomes a contract of employment. How many employers out there know that? The OP's wife has been verbally offered a position, told her duties, and has been told the hours she has to work.....here is the relevant passage.

What is a contract of employment?

There is always a contract between an employee and employer. You may not have anything in writing, but a contract will still exist. This is because your agreement to work for your employer and your employer’s agreement to pay you for your work forms a contract.

Here is the next important part......

Your employer does have to give you a written statement within two months of you starting work. The statement must contain certain terms and conditions.

A contract gives both you and your employer certain rights and obligations. The most common example is that you have a right to be paid for the work you do. Your employer has a right to give reasonable instructions to you and for you to work at your job. These rights and obligations are called contractual terms.

The rights that you have under your contract of employment are in addition to the rights you have under law, such as, for example, the right to a national minimum wage and the right to paid holidays.

We can deduce that the OP's wife does not have a written Contract of Employment, that is illegal. In effect the law allows for a period when you are on a verbal trial in this regard of two months, however after that you must receive a written contract.

Here are the Basic Employee Rights in the UK.....

http://www.advicegui...hts_at_work.htm

I'm not going through all of them, I'll be hear all night, however the employee is entitled to things such as paid annual leave, statutory sick pay etc etc An employee working 40 hours per week is entitled to 28 days paid holiday per year, not the mere 10 days ( or is it 14, OP please clarify ), that the wife is getting at the moment. Many people make the mistake of including normal days off into their so called 2 week break, that is incorrect.

Here is the next problem.....the Working Time Directive.....

It is illegal to compel someone to work more than 48 hours per week without their express written consent.

http://www.direct.go...off/dg_10029426

There is plenty to the Working Time Regulations, and it goes beyond how many hours per week.....check this link

http://www.freelance...-bank-holidays/

Right, I could go on and on about this subject, I think I have proven that under the law the OP's is an employee....let's look at the payment issues.

The current minimum wage for someone in the UK over 21 is £6.08 per hour,

http://www.hmrc.gov....-to-day/nmw.htm

the actual cost to the employer is 12% on top of that, this additional payment is called the Employers National Insurance Contribution. On the minimum wage of 60 hours x £6.08 = £364.80. The ENIC additional content is £30.47 per week, which calculates out to £1584.46 per annum.

That is £1584.46 stolen from the UK taxpayer.

The OP's wife going through at the minimum wage on a 60 hour week would be producing this level of income and taxation.
Gross Pay £18,969.60 £1,580.80 £364.80
Tax free Allowances £8,105.00 £675.42 £155.87
Total taxable £10,864.60 £905.38 £208.93
xTax due £2,172.92 £181.08 £41.79
National Insurance£1,365.31 £113.78 £26.26
Total Deductions£3,538.23 £294.85 £68.04
Net Wage £15,431.37 £1,285.95 £296.76
Employers NI £1,584.46 £132.04 £30.47  

If you add on the Income Tax that the wife should be paying, and the NIC that she should be paying on just the basic wage that totals £3538.23, now adding the ENIC the total theft from the system is £5167.69.

OP, your wife is complicit in stealing £5167.69 per annum from the UK government. She is complicit because she is allowing it. You are complicit too because you are allowing it. How much more rightful tax due is this employer denying the Exchequer?

have a look at this.......

http://www.direct.go...MRC/DG_10010579

Now have a look at this.....

http://www.justanswe...tributions.html

No pay slips, no record of payments etc is a recipe for disaster, a serious recipe for disaster. The OP is taking the risk of the restaurant being raided and his wife being caught up in a tax investigation. Surely it occurred to the OP that "foreign" owned restaurants are known for employing people illegally and are often randomly raided?....please note the first one was a Thai food outlet......

http://www.ukba.home...illegal-workers

http://www.ukba.home...worker-grantham

http://www.ukba.home...illegal-workers

Did the OP seriously go to the trouble of getting his wife a settlement visa to then get her caught up in these types of raids? Where they go the other agencies follow.

Here's the nub of the matter, if the OP's wife went to the tax authorities she would be regarded as a victim. The HMRC would take action against the employer and move to recover the money lost by this fraud.

If the OP's wife is caught on the premises then the burden of proof falls on her. I can easily calculate the actual tax due just now if the OP would tell me the start date. It is very much a case of who get's the story in first, if it becomes a problem. Proactive is far better.  

In that case you will find yourself in an Alice in Wonderland Magic Roundabout scenario, I have been in several "disputes" with the Revenue over the years and I know what I'm doing, I helped a friend win a Tribunal last month where one of the issues was the lack of a written Contract Of Employment.

Trust me OP, you don't want to get involved in that situation. It is brain damage, and I mean brain damage.

So in summary, your wife is illegally employed, is complicit in tax fraud, and is breaking employment regulations left right and centre, and to make it worse, it's not her fault, it's your fault.

It's your fault because you have failed in your duty of care to your wife, it was you that relocated her to the UK, and it is you that is allowing this to continue. This is the harsh reality of the matter, I'm sorry if it irritates you however I'm doing you a favour. Show your wife this reply.

To all those that are taking a live and let live attitude, an attitude that it is a good way for the wife to integrate into UK society, in this case you are wrong.

The UK tax authorities are currently merciless, they have never been so motivated to extract every coin that they can. They are using various relatively new measures to gain as much revenue as possible, and they are taking people to court at every opportunity.

You may have been in business in the UK in the past, but you have never seen such a concerted effort by the tax authorities and trust me, the Immigration authorities as you are seeing now. Under no circumstances would I expose my Thai partner to the threat of this level of scrutiny, and believe me, I know what I'm doing.

OP, tell your wife to hand her notice in, she will get a job in a heart beat, even in places like Dominos Pizza and MacDonalds. OP, take control of the situation before you regret it.......and if she objects just point out this is British culture, I've always wanted to say that to a Thai.

Just pull it out at the local market and see what bites?

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

I suppose that is why so many of us choose to live in Thailand, and why those of us who try to make a living in the UK struggle internationally.  I'm delighted that she and her employer are doing their bit to make the UK competitive and roll back the nanny state bureaucracy that has apparently driven so many of us out of the country.

There's no way I would make a fuss to my employer about getting the mimnimum wage, and I am glad that I am free to negotiate whatever he and I both feel is appropriate for my services.  If she feels she is worth more, then perhaps she should take her services elsewhere, rather than creating work for lawyers and bureaucrats

SC

edwinclapham, on 2012-05-23 12:38:56, said:

Although I disagree with your wife's exploitation, I was reading with some degree of indifference until I got to this post.

If your wife intends to stay in the UK and get UK citizenship she should always stay on the right side of the Inland Revenue. Once those buggers get onto you for any reason they will be impossible to shake off and your wife's tax avoidance could cost her the opportunity to gain British Citizenship, never mind back tax.