Author: Mark Reynolds

Most business owners will be familiar with the types of excuses they get when their invoices haven’t been paid in time. Excuses such as ‘we never got the invoice’, ‘our systems have been down’, the person who authorises payment is on holiday’, ‘you’re on the next payment run’ etc etc. Unfortunately these excuses are all too common and we all know they’re fake. So what are the real reasons for late payments?

Well, there tend to be four main reasons for late payments. They are:

1. Financial problems – the business that owes you money are having their own cash flow problems. People aren’t paying them so they’re not paying you. It’s a vicious circle.
2. Intentional late payers – these are businesses that had no intention of paying you on time anyway. They operate their own internal payment processes to suit themselves and their cash flow and they will pay you when they’re good and ready. The supplier comes a poor second, unfortunately.
3. Admin issues – these are businesses that don’t intend to pay you late; they’re just so disorganised that they haven’t got the right people or processes in place to facilitate timely payments.
4. Disputes – often used as a stalling tactic by businesses this is when they are disputing an element of the job that you supplied and they will not pay until the matter is resolved. In these situations, you need to get them to be specific about what they are disputing and get it in writing. These things can really drag on if you’re not pro-active.

With any of the above scenarios, there is no reason why you should have to put up with it. If a business owes you money and they are late on paying then there are commercial debt recovery processes that can be put into action. The longer you leave it, the more difficult it becomes to get your money so we always advise our clients to act swiftly.

If you have any commercial debt that needs recovering then please give us a call on 0800 002 9577 to discuss further.

Despite successive government attempts to deal with the pay gap between men and women and the brave stand of female car workers in Dagenham during the 1960s ( immortalised in the British film Made in Dagenham) , equal pay is still an issue in this country and it’s still an employment law hot potato.

However, some change is afoot. Equal pay claims that are presented from the 1^st October 2014 onwards requires employers who are in breach of equal pay legislation to carry out and publish equal pay audits.

This will put some employers in a very awkward situation. They will be required to identify pay differences between men and women doing the same job, stipulate the reasons for those differences and set out a plan for avoiding breaches in the future. It promises to be a pretty embarrassing scenario as offending businesses get named and shamed.

If an employer produces an equal pay audit which is not deemed satisfactory by an employment tribunal they may have to pay a penalty of up to £5000 and be given a date to produce an audit that is satisfactory. If they fail again, another penalty of up to £5000 could be imposed.

However, some businesses are exempt from this ruling. Micro-businesses (less than 10 employees) and the majority of new business start-ups will not be challenged about their equal pay situation so there still appears to be some way to go before equal pay in the UK is monitored everywhere.

It will be interesting to see over the next 12 months how this contentious part of employment law develops and who gets named and shamed in the process!

The subject of zero hour contracts is one of those subjects that just won’t go away in employment law circles. Earlier this year the Government put together some draft legislation surrounding this subject and they defined a zero hour contract as:

(i) the undertaking to do or perform work or services is an undertaking to do so conditionally on the employer making work or services available to the worker, and

(ii) there is no certainty that any such work or services will be made available to the worker.

In the legislation, the Government has confirmed that it will ban the use of exclusivity terms that prevent zero hour workers working for another employer even when no work is guaranteed by their existing employer.

The Government has also pledged to work with unions and businesses to formulate a best practice code of conduct aimed at employers who wish to use zero-hour contracts.

Many employees in the UK are engaged in zero hour contracts because they offer the employer flexibility to manage shifts in demand, recruitment costs and can allow businesses to expand their services whilst avoiding the costs of employing staff who they do not need on a permanent basis. However, unscrupulous employers have been accused of using this to their advantage, disregarding the status of the employee and the rights they are entitled to.

The Government is unlikely to ban the use of zero hour contracts completely, but there is likely to be legislation brought in to address those employers who abuse it. Imposing financial penalties, paying compensation to zero hour workers and creating additional rights for zero hour workers are all on the table to be discussed so it will be interesting to see how the legislation develops over the next few months – a code of practice on the use of zero hour contracts is due by the end of the year.

Mark Reynolds Solicitors, one of the North West’s leading personal injury law firms, has expanded again with the opening of a fourth office.  The company, which was established 5 years ago by Mark Reynolds and Peter McCourt, now has offices in Liverpool, Runcorn, Leigh and, most recently, Warrington.

Mark and Peter say their rapid expansion is down to a growing reputation for providing a reliable, high quality service, especially in the field of personal injury and employment law.  The company recently won a six-figure payout for Anita Carlton who was unfairly dismissed after she blew the whistle on the care being provided to patients at the Regency Hospital in Heswall, Wirral. The hospital has since closed.

Mark Reynolds Solicitors was established in 2009 in Liverpool.  The second office was opened in Runcorn in 2012, the third in Leigh in 2013.  With the opening of the Warrington office, there are now 25 lawyers and support staff on the team, working across six specialist divisions: personal injury claims, employment law, wills, debt and insolvency, family law and clinical negligence cases.

Mark said: “We’re very excited about the opening of the Warrington office.  Our reputation, particularly as personal injury solicitors, has grown to the extent that our clients are now based throughout North West England.  From Warrington, we can serve a large area and ensure we provide that all important face-to-face contact with our clients.”