paying people to cover your shift is it legal

leveller11 · Post by **leveller11** » 09 Aug 2013, 12:06

I was wondering if you could answer a question about 2 months ago my shift manager suddenly stopped everyone from paying people to cover there shift saying that it wss illegal for me to pay someone because the reason is that the mate I'm paying is not tax on it and also the day this was introduced we were all made to sign a sheet of saying we would not pay people
to cover for us I spoke to my union rep who had no idea my shift manager was going to fo this is my shift manager correct? Is this taking place vin other offices?

Spedley · Post by **Spedley** » 09 Aug 2013, 12:14

I don't think tax is relevant. The real reason will be that people are doing deliveries for for friends instead of making themselves available for overtime. I was told I can't help a colleague out if there is overtime uncovered which in fairness I fully understand and agree with.

gand · Post by **gand** » 09 Aug 2013, 12:31

Plz tell me this is some kind of joke?

leveller11 · Post by **leveller11** » 09 Aug 2013, 13:08

I have a question about 2 month ago my shift manager stopped letting peolple pay other people to cover there shift saying that it's illegal because the person I am paying is not paying any tax on this we was not given anynotice about this even though he knew about it about a month before he introduced it my union rep said he knew nothing about it we was all made to sign a bit of papet saying that we would not pay people to cover a shift is this right is this s nstional agreement

leveller11 · Post by **leveller11** » 09 Aug 2013, 13:12

No its not a joke its happend at my sorting office

worktotime · Post by **worktotime** » 09 Aug 2013, 13:27

leveller11 wrote:I have a question about 2 month ago my shift manager stopped letting peolple pay other people to cover there shift saying that it's illegal because the person I am paying is not paying any tax on this we was not given anynotice about this even though he knew about it about a month before he introduced it my union rep said he knew nothing about it we was all made to sign a bit of papet saying that we would not pay people to cover a shift is this right is this s nstional agreement

it happens all the time in our office and our dim has no problem with it because it still gets done , it has nothing to do the the dim as its not costing r/m any money .

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 09 Aug 2013, 13:40

leveller11 wrote:I have a question about 2 month ago my shift manager stopped letting peolple pay other people to cover there shift saying that it's illegal because the person I am paying is not paying any tax on this we was not given anynotice about this even though he knew about it about a month before he introduced it my union rep said he knew nothing about it we was all made to sign a bit of papet saying that we would not pay people to cover a shift is this right is this s nstional agreement

Please keep to one thread per topic - 5 separate threads is bit overkill

and make a lot of work for me.

Post by **Judgee** » 09 Aug 2013, 13:47

The problem is that when people are off thier cash covers do not cover the IPS/packet sorting. Therefore those who are left working on Saturday have to do extra work to cover those people who are off. In our office only a fixed amount of people could get cash cover (3 per week I think?) and they had to write it down in the book, first come first served. When we moved to a new office they stopped doing the book and some weeks 20+ people were off on cash covers leaving alot of extra work for everyone else in the office working it.

Recently they've gone back to writing it down to get it back to a more reasonable level. Legal or otherwise I think it's considered a perk rather than an official agreement. If management turn round and stop it I very much doubt there's anything anyone can do about it!

leveller11 · Post by **leveller11** » 09 Aug 2013, 14:08

Why is it not a nationap thing surely if its illegal for me to do it tgen it must be the same for everyone

daveyeff · Post by **daveyeff** » 09 Aug 2013, 16:03

its supposed to be illegal but some management couldnt give a toss.,,,,unless something goes wrong,.i.e. accident on duty, dog attack etc. then the shyte could hit the fan. because rm would say the '' stand in'' postie is not covered by insurance etc, he shouldnt be doing something he's not covered for and you can bet you're bottom dollar if this DOES happen, then the management will flatly deny any knowledge of it. heads could roll.

ebbzie · Post by **ebbzie** » 09 Aug 2013, 16:54

I think you will find the agreement is, as long as its no cost to the business its ok. I ve seen it written in some agreement somewhere .
I expect someone will put the link to it up on here soon

macetheace · Post by **macetheace** » 09 Aug 2013, 17:03

this sort of thing has been going on for years (and I`ve worked for royal snail for 25yrs+) and yes I`ve paid and had payment for doing someone else`s round

FinishOnTime · Post by **FinishOnTime** » 09 Aug 2013, 18:00

It's illegal in the same way as not declaring your Christmas tips to the taxman is illegal. Managers turn a blind eye to it cos they would turn a blind eye to a postman murdering his granny as long as his delivery was covered.

Post by **Lounge Lizard** » 09 Aug 2013, 19:12

FinishOnTime wrote:It's illegal in the same way as not declaring your Christmas tips to the taxman is illegal. Managers turn a blind eye to it cos they would turn a blind eye to a postman murdering his granny as long as his delivery was covered.

But income tax and national insurance have already been paid.

You don't keep paying additional VAT at 20% for every stage in the manufacture and selling of a product.

Poorly · Post by **Poorly** » 09 Aug 2013, 21:40

I can't believe I'm reading this, surely this is a joke. Any manager that lets this go on should be sacked. It's effectively working cash in hand regardless if one employee has paid tax or not. HMRC will judge us as individuals not collectively.

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