A former worker of the Cheese & Toast café contacted one of our SolFed members after she was accused of stealing money from the till without any proofs and was harassed by the manager and owner of the business, leaving her no other choice than to leave the workplace.

After an informal visit where the worker was paid cash in hand for the last week of work and an “extra” £100, we studied the case and found out that no contract or payslips were given, and that the worker’s salary was decided by the manager, being under the minimum wage, and not including the holiday pay. In conjunction with the worker we decided to write a demand letter and start negotiations with management.

After a couple of phone calls and a second visit to the café to hand the demand letter, the manager insisted in putting us in contact with his accountants, so we started negotiations with them. The accountant made clear that the owner of Cheese & Toast didn’t want any more visits and was willing to pay the worker. Even if the worker was not given an apology by the manager and couldn’t inform the costumers of her situation, she was quite happy about the result.