Need Legal Advice

[Snotty]

As snoopy369 says emailing the TUC cant hurt. They might not be able give you advice but they should be able to point you in the right direction

[Victor Galis]

Also found online:

The penalty for breach of contract is as specified by the contract, and no penalty not specified by the contract can be levied in any case.

Is this true in the UK? (The site I found this on didn't specify specific countries, was just more general info about contracts.)

[snoopy369]

I believe that a contract to pay $X would be considered legally binding to pay that $X, and any breach would involve a payment of $X. That means, I think, that you can't collect MORE than $X, unless you can claim damages you suffered as a result of not having $X soon enough (ie, interest/penalties on your own debts).

[Victor Galis]

At this point all I really want is my July salary, and any money withheld for tax purposes.

edit: Because I will probably not be working very much this year, my total income will probably not be big enough to pay taxes (I'm going back to school in the fall.)

[Zkribbler]

In the U.S., the states have Labor Commissioners whose job it is to protect employees from not getting paid. Unlike going to an attonrey, going to the labor commissioner doesn't cost anythiing. Because France is far to the left of the U.S., I would imagine they have at least this mimimal protection.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
I don't think it technically matters if you weren't an employee of Amadeus. They should be partially responsible at least.

Why? If Amadeus has paid the management company pursuant to their contract, they likely owe nothing to anyone.

I routinely do conracts where we have an engineering comapny provide some consultant engineers for a period of time. We would never expect to get sued by any individual engineers as often we have no knowledge of the terms and pay rates applicable to their employment. We just pay a day rate.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Flubber
Why? If Amadeus has paid the management company pursuant to their contract, they likely owe nothing to anyone.

I routinely do conracts where we have an engineering comapny provide some consultant engineers for a period of time. We would never expect to get sued by any individual engineers as often we have no knowledge of the terms and pay rates applicable to their employment. We just pay a day rate.

Oops... I thought that Amadeus had paid him an advance instead of Volt. Volt, by paying the advanced paycheck, seems to show that they are more than just a contractee company.

[Flubber]

Oh and under English/ common law a statement in a contract as to the proper law should be binding.

If the party that "employed" you is English and has most of their assets in England, I would sue or seek my remedy there. The fact that your work was performed in France would be irrelevant. Take action where there are assets to chase. The amounts are small so if I could I would chase the company that you actually have a contract with-- in the jurisdiction they have assets.

Oh and I can't imagine that there saying you owed them notice would stand up. A party cannot be expected to continue to perform a contract when the other party continues to be in unremedied breach

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


Oops... I thought that Amadeus had paid him an advance instead of Volt. Volt, by paying the advanced paycheck, seems to show that they are more than just a contractee company.

Agreed -- Although we have no idea why Volt paid what they did. Volt might have just been trying to ease the situation-- Heck its possible that they could be out money too if they didn't get paid for the recruitment or reimbursed the previous advances ( Assuming they are really distinct from the English employer)

[Flubber]

I guess the lesson here is


DON'T SIGN CRAPPY CONTRACTS

[rah]

On items that involve as little money as this (in the big picture) I usually just call the company claiming to be a lawyer for (myself) and it usually get's their attention. Almost every time I got what I deserved. (hmmm that didn't sound right, but you get the point)

[asleepathewheel]

I think in this case, hiring a lawyer to write a nasty letter would probably be sufficient.

how much are you out? It seems to me that you could easily spend more than the value of the contract in order to fight this. Of course, that is what they way.

Try a nasty letter under legal letterhead for maybe 100-200 dollars and see where that gets you.

[Victor Galis]

Originally posted by Flubber


Agreed -- Although we have no idea why Volt paid what they did. Volt might have just been trying to ease the situation-- Heck its possible that they could be out money too if they didn't get paid for the recruitment or reimbursed the previous advances ( Assuming they are really distinct from the English employer)

As far as I understand Amadeus paid Volt, who was supposed to pay the management company, which was supposed to pay me. Volt and the management company were supposed to have contract between them, but this never actually happened (or maybe it did on the last day I worked there 80+ days after). Volt paid me directly while the contract wasn't signed, but only after complaints about not being paid.

On the bright side, Volt seems to exist in both England and France.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Flubber


Agreed -- Although we have no idea why Volt paid what they did. Volt might have just been trying to ease the situation-- Heck its possible that they could be out money too if they didn't get paid for the recruitment or reimbursed the previous advances ( Assuming they are really distinct from the English employer)

Often, employment agencies such as Volt also act as the client company's payroll company. But usually, at least in California, Volt is the employer and contracts out its "employees" to work for other companies.

[Victor Galis]

Originally posted by Zkribbler


Often, employment agencies such as Volt also act as the client company's payroll company. But usually, at least in California, Volt is the employer and contracts out its "employees" to work for other companies.

In this case they outsourced that to a third company. Keeps things even more complicated