Hello there!

I am a new user and really need some help,

My ex-employer kept telling me that my contracts were being drawn up, asked me to lie to the police about it if they asked and appealled to me to work for extra hours due to his personal circumstance, and said he would pay me as much extra as he couldfor them. I have been working for over 4 months with them, doing well over stated hours to help out during this difficult financial period, completed almost 140hrs in the last two weeks and got paid for 70 of them, on the two occassions where he asked me to work over time i said i couldn’t do as much overtime as he wanted, he then threatened me saying that he would find someone to do the work leaving me only 12hrs a week in shifts, which wouldn’t pay my electricity bills, never mind my rent. He is an english expat and is not legal to work in the premises he is in either, nor does the other staff have contracts etc. Can i do anything about it? I feel that constructive dismissal is prevalent and i am legally here, do i have any rights? Over legal hours, paid under 3 euros and hour, he has contravened every employment law!

Yours sincerely,

Please advise me?

Hi…

Don’t know if this is going to be of any help but I would suggest that you contact Myra at http://www.costaadvicebureau.com/

She and or her staff are based in Estapona and may be in a position to help.

By the way and just as a general interest… your employer… not a ‘builder’ by any chance is he?

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Thankyou!! I will check this out, really not happy!! No he is not a builder but in a very popular trade that serves tourists, i’m sure you can guess from that!!

I see your pic of the dog, beautiful. If i can help in anyway with animals then i’m your gal!!

Thankyou again, I will tell you how i got on.

Unfortunately, from what I have seen, your situation isn’t too uncommon. It’s not limited to unscrupulous Brits, it’s quite common with Spanish employers with Spanish workers. It’s not only in construction or in barwork, it’s common in shops, hairdressers, hotels and a wide range of services too. Most commonly though will be that you have a contract, albiet part-time, say 20 hours a week and you’ll be working full time.this saves the employer on social security, and means less for you if you are made unemployed. in small businesses it’s very common that you never get paid overtime.
My wife is a hairdresser (Spanish) and has seen just about all the scam and diversions that employers have come up with. Our town is quite small so most hairdressers know eachother, most know who don’t pay and who demand exhorbitant hours, the problem is that nobody will report these errant employers because it isn’t an anonymous process, you will be there in the court and according to my wife, up there and visible for all other employers to see as a troublemaker.
A friend of mine works for a very prominent hotelier in Galicia and wasn’t paid for four months, but couldn’t do anything because to leave the company would mean she lost any right to unemployment benefit, to not show up for work would be abandonmenty of her job , again no paro, so she had to keep working, looking for another job and knowing that she wouldn’t see any of the money owed to her.
Sadly, however much the unions go on about hard earned rights for workers in spain, in cases like yours and for hundreds of thousands of people working in micro size businesses, there is no protection at all and NO interest from the unions. I hope that Costa Advice can help you and I hope you decide to report your employer - good luck whatever you decide to do.