Hello,
I applogise that this post is long , I was just hoping someone could be of some assistance. I'm in the process of finishing all my documents to go to court, but I would like to hear from someone experienced whether it's even worth it.
Rewind to the start of my employment just over 2 years ago; I was hired as a trainee dental assistant. I wasn't signed up to officially start my traineeship for over 6 months because my boss stuffed all us girls around(I suppose my first question is should I have been paid trainee wages then? No big deal, just curious). This boss was really demending and rude, so he had a really hard time keeping staff, so a lot of his employees quit shortly after I started. So he had 2 non qualified nurses and myself working ridiculous overtime for a period of a few months, although I suppose he didn't care because I was cheap ($13p/h) He then did hire some more nurses, but he hired too many and I was never making my 38hrs a week I was contracted to do or even close to that. He tried to argue with me that the hours could be averaged over a month, even so it wasn't even close to 38hours. So instead of paying me for the hours he hired me for but couldn't supply, he would get his receptionist to come into the surgery while I was nursing, and make me sign a document saying he could use my annual leave to make up the hours he wasn't giving me. I was scared of this man and needed to keep my job, I didn't want to give him my annual leave but I wouldn't dare disobey him for fear of the consequences. This went on and on for months. It wasn't until over a year after I started that I requested my first annual leave (only 3 days). And it wasn't until I came back from this annual leave that he told me that I had used all my annual leave and had actually taken annual leave in advance. I actually got offered another job shortly after and quit, BUT, he never paid me my last pay. I sent him 2 letters of demand, and he got his lawyer to send me a letter saying I actually owed him 1.4k for all the annual leave in advance I took. What are my entitlements? We never had an agreement stating I had to pay annual leave back, and I wasn't even aware I had done it to begin with. Is he still legally required to pay me my final pay? Another question I had was, would he be required to pay me the annual leave he stole from me instead of giving me hours if the court saw it as unfair that I was forced to sign for it? Thanks in advance!
I applogise that this post is long , I was just hoping someone could be of some assistance. I'm in the process of finishing all my documents to go to court, but I would like to hear from someone experienced whether it's even worth it.
Rewind to the start of my employment just over 2 years ago; I was hired as a trainee dental assistant. I wasn't signed up to officially start my traineeship for over 6 months because my boss stuffed all us girls around(I suppose my first question is should I have been paid trainee wages then? No big deal, just curious). This boss was really demending and rude, so he had a really hard time keeping staff, so a lot of his employees quit shortly after I started. So he had 2 non qualified nurses and myself working ridiculous overtime for a period of a few months, although I suppose he didn't care because I was cheap ($13p/h) He then did hire some more nurses, but he hired too many and I was never making my 38hrs a week I was contracted to do or even close to that. He tried to argue with me that the hours could be averaged over a month, even so it wasn't even close to 38hours. So instead of paying me for the hours he hired me for but couldn't supply, he would get his receptionist to come into the surgery while I was nursing, and make me sign a document saying he could use my annual leave to make up the hours he wasn't giving me. I was scared of this man and needed to keep my job, I didn't want to give him my annual leave but I wouldn't dare disobey him for fear of the consequences. This went on and on for months. It wasn't until over a year after I started that I requested my first annual leave (only 3 days). And it wasn't until I came back from this annual leave that he told me that I had used all my annual leave and had actually taken annual leave in advance. I actually got offered another job shortly after and quit, BUT, he never paid me my last pay. I sent him 2 letters of demand, and he got his lawyer to send me a letter saying I actually owed him 1.4k for all the annual leave in advance I took. What are my entitlements? We never had an agreement stating I had to pay annual leave back, and I wasn't even aware I had done it to begin with. Is he still legally required to pay me my final pay? Another question I had was, would he be required to pay me the annual leave he stole from me instead of giving me hours if the court saw it as unfair that I was forced to sign for it? Thanks in advance!
