Not been paid for a trial shift at Tesco

[sue11]

Hello I wonder if anyone can offer any advice. My nephew applied for a job at Tesco. He attended an interview and was told that they thought he would be a suitable applicant, but he would need to work a trial shift before the decision was taken in regards to him being offered employment. He worked an overnight shift for a total of 8 hours prior to this, was advised by one of the managers that he would be paid for the shift.
A couple of days after he worked the shift, he was told that he was unsuccessful in his trial and would not be given employment. When he asked about payment for the shift, he was told that he would not be paid for the trial. He queried this further with another manager who denied that he worked the full 8 hours and stated that trial applicants only ever have to work 2 hours at the most, which they are not paid for.
So far I have advised him to write formally to the company's HR Dept, giving the names of both managers that he spoke to and ask for the payment that he was promised.
If this does not work, does anyone know if he can take this further? As he is not an employee, I think he is going to have some difficulty.
Does anyone know if he take this to an employment tribunal, I am presuming not?
He could try a small claims court application, but I believe it costs £120 to make this kind of a claim, which may not be worth pursuing as he has no written evidence in that he would be paid for the trial shift.
Builders Mate or Barmaid if you are reading this, I would be very grateful for any legal advice that you can give me!
Many thanks
Sue

[factor-fiction]

I think you have given good advice and it's probably best now to wait to see how Tesco's HR department responds

[sue11]

Thanks Factor30, I wish that he had insisted on something in writing, my nephew is too trusting and naive and tends to be walked over by people thinking they can take advantage of him, which makes me angry for him!

[EvianBaby]

I don't think persuing it through a small claims or tribunal would be worth the bother if he doesn't get anywhere after writing to HR.

It would be better to put it down as a bad experience and make sure he gets things agreed in writing beforehand in the future.

[China Doll]

Is it worth checking how much the small claims would charge in comparrison with what he might have actually earned as it may not be worth it to even pursue if you don't get the answer you want?

[Barmaid]

I'm afraid I don't even touch employment law so I can't help you with the employment aspects. However, you could go down the Small Claims route. It will be his word against the managers.

You could do the SC thing yourself - the fixed costs that are payable are normally charged to the other side if you win. If you lose, the upside is you won't have to pay their costs unless there has been unreasonable conduct on your part.

You would need to allege in the particulars of claim on the claim form that the agreement was to work for one shift, that payment was agreed and at what rate, that the shift was worked and in breach of the agreement payment was not made. The other side then do a defence.

At that stage the Court will issue directions for witness statements and your nephew has to write a statement saying what was promised by whom and when (the other side do the same).

The Judge will hear evidence at the hearing and decide on the balance of probabilities whether your nephew has proved his case.

[Maydup]

Unfortunately he is not covered by employment law as he is not their employee, but it is really poor practise and if nothing else, they should be very clear before he does the trail, under what terms he is there. eg 2 hours or 8, paid or unpaid.

Persist with the HR dept and do not give in. He was there in good faith and whether or not he was hired is irrelevant to the way they should treat him. What would have happened had he had an accident, would the managers deny his existance. Shoking way to carry on.

If he is not paid promtly by HR go to something like WatchDog or the financial adviser in one of the national newspapers, they'll not enjoy the publicity of this and is more likely to succeed than a more official and costly route.

[buildersmate]

Agree with Maidup 100%.
Don't have specific experience of Tesco, though I believe them to be tough but not ones to take deliberate advantage. I suspect that a genuine mistake has occurred since it ought to be possible to assess a candidate in 2 hours, not 8.

[sue11]

Thank you so much to everyone, you have all given some very useful advice that I can show to my sister and nephew. We will definitely persist with Tesco, as you say they are a big company and I cannot believe it is common practice to try to avoid paying trial shifts.
I will try to remember to keep you all informed of the outcome!
Once again many thanks
Sue

[hundreddolla]

Contact ACAS

http://www.acas.org.u...x.aspx?articleid=1461

They'll be able to tell you over the phone whether this is worth pursuing.