lingyaiyai

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.

Trembly, on 2012-05-23 14:57:58, said:

Indeed. It could even effect her ILR application.

If she is being paid below the minimum wage then she is probably being paid cash in hand as well.

Does she get a proper pay slip showing how much tax and NIC has been deducted?

If not and she is being paid gross then she is liable for any tax and NIC due. Even if her earnings are too low for her to pay any she still has to complete a SA return to tell HMRC this and is breaking the law if she doesn't.

If you don't want to get involved, it may be worth an anonymous tip to the UKBA. If the restaurant is paying below minimum wage they are likely to be employing people whose visas do not allow them to work, or students working more than the 20 hours a week they are allowed. Even if they are not a visit from a UKBA enforcement team may shake them up a bit.

On a different note; when my wife arrived she did not want to work in a Thai restaurant, even though she was offered a job in one. Her reasoning being that working only with Thais meant she would be speaking Thai most of the time and her English wouldn't improve. It took a few months, but then she did get a job working with Anglophones and her English improved rapidly.

sparebox9, on 2012-05-22 06:36:49, said:

You really should check the guys connections before posting.

is this urgent news ??????????????

On the whole I couldn't care less what he does but there is one part of this story that makes me mad;
"He has a house in London"
Prick. He and his ilk do so much to try and stop farangs owning a house in Thailand. I would assume all the politicians own houses outside of Thailand. A-holes.

drdoom6996, on 2012-04-06 11:42:08, said:

where did I indicate people? you seem to be both knowledgeable in this and the English language so please explain where I have done so. As for challenging my education what right do you feel you have to do so?

drdoom6996, on 2012-04-06 11:31:35, said:

Let me see if I understand your dismissive comment. Where in my post did I state or even infer that humans were infecting humans? Of course I don't know everything about this, and perhaps I know less than I should, that is why I find it helpful to ask questions. Given I did not indicate in any way what you stated perhaps you should reconsider your rude and unwarranted comments in the instruction to you gave.

sfbandung, on 2012-04-05 07:43:22, said:

========================

They were trying to get the police and government officials to go back to work after lunch, instead of drinking all afternoon.

These ATM's are not some product of a registered charity, they are there to make money
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

You cant be serious?

And just because the banks hit you with a 1-2 baht lower exchange rate (on GBP for example) is just part of the Banking charity's wonderful work is it?

So Aeon, HSBC & Citi are Charity's i take it>

Thailand Banking ATM charges are obscene, how the locals put up with it is amazing, pay to put money in pay to take money out, inter province bank transfer fees...hold money on deposit and receive poor interest yet the banks make billions in profit via fractional lending

The full Banking system is a SCAM

whybother, on 2012-03-06 08:36:59, said:

Perhaps there is a small % who would like to be 'rescued' - yet perhaps there are a greater % of indentured maids, clearing 20 baht a day, forced to work 24/7 for rich Chinese -Thai families who would also like to be 'rescued.' Sex workers, with few exceptions, can walk away if they choose. The #1 reason for sex worker harassment is Christian aid groups motivated by their western puritanical superiority complexes. I had a Christian group wanting to rent my large house. They were planning to do 'improvements' to it - which would have turned it in to a fortress to keep 'rescued sex workers' from having visitors and/or breaking out. I said 'no' to the house rental proposal.

As a German i feel ashamed. Sorry.

americaninbangkok, on 2012-01-11 14:48:24, said:

My dear friend. Thanks for your detailed chiding of me in my recent issue with US TSA. In hasty reading my post you must have overlooked the zippo was in the "checked baggage". It was not in carry on. To be fair I will not address your IQ. I will give you the benifit of the doubt .
It is perfectly admissable to carry a zippo in checked baggage as I have done since 1994 worldwide including multiple trips back to the US.
Your emotional composition is quite good. Maybe you should consider writing novels.
Anyhow I will overlook your personal attacks. Have a beer and a nice day.

Johnniey, on 2012-01-11 14:03:19, said:

NO! As a former airport/airline employee I was offered a walk through. I declined and reported the employee who was later terminated.

From my early days in LOS I remember that Belgian woman who rented a big house in BKK, then hired a few young unemployed girls to stay in the house and pretend they had been "rescued" from Patpong when sponsors to her fake charitable organisation would show up.

A Belgian journalist got suspicious, investigated her and revealed her scam.
She had to abandon her profitable activity and rerturn to Belgium.

There was a case in all the Filipino papers and tv last year where the Cebu police "rescued" "sex slaves."  They were cam girls and boys working in a house and on equipment supplied by a foreigner, I think a Danish man.  

When they interviewed the "slaves," both the two women and the one man interviewed said they were working by choice as it was safer, they could make decent money, and they didn't have to work actually having sex with strangers.  They didn't know what they were going to do now that their place of work was closed.  One of the women seemed pretty upset that she could not make a living after that and might have to go back to a bar.

Whether people should be able to work as a camgirl or camboy is another issue, but without doubt, I can't see those three interviewees being slaves by any stretch of the definition.