Dear Claudienne,

I am writing to you on behalf of my husband, who is a tiler. In 2014 he worked for a construction company building houses in a St Andrew community. When he started working for the company in February/March, they praised his work and everything was going well until about late April when the company started defaulting on payments to be made to him.

He made enquiries and found out that the buildings being constructed were originally supposed to be two storeys but they were later extended to three storeys without the necessary approval from the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC). As a result the KSAC stopped the work on the project for a short time until the said approvals were granted. This caused the bank to stop issuing payments for the project and the company had to submit a new application to the bank for additional funding to complete the project.

While the company was sorting out these issues with the bank, my husband and a number of other sub-contractors stopped working on the project because the monies owed to them for work already done was accumulating. This was about late April to early May 2014, by which time my husband was owed $505,268. On May 2, 2014, he got a cheque for $101,355, but when he went to the bank to cash same, there was no money in the account. He went back to the company and told them that he would not start working again until he received at least half of the money owed to him. On May15, 2014 he received $40,000 and on May 29 he received another $50,000. Since that time he has gone to the site to try to get the rest of the money owed to him, but to no avail. In the latter part of June 2014 he received a letter from the company explaining the situation regarding the non-payment of money owed to him and giving a date when the balance would be paid.

When he was not paid by the promised date, he went back to the site in August 2014 and received a payment of $100,000. He was told to return in two weeks’ time for the balance of the money owed to him. When he went back to the construction site he did not receive the payment, but while there he noticed some other people working. When he made enquiries he was told that the people were finishing the work that he had not completed. He was told to return the following week for payment, but when he went back to the site he was not paid.

Since then he has been going back to the site week after week, but he has not been paid. On one occasion when he went for his money the company admitted that they owed him but pointed out that there were faults with some of the tiling he had done and it would have to be corrected before he would be paid.

He said that he asked them to show him where the corrections needed to be done but they refused to show him the faults. He said that the company then denied entry to him and the other subcontractors to whom they owed money.My husband is owed a balance of $315,268, including the amount on the cheque that could not be cashed.

We would appreciate any help you might be able to give in assisting my husband to collect the money owed to him.

TM

Dear TM,

Tell Claudienne spoke to the foreman on the project who had hired your husband. He said that some of the work your husband had done needed to be corrected. He said that when the sections of tiling needing correction were redone to the company’s satisfaction, your husband would be paid. The foreman gave us a date for your husband to visit the project to redo the work, but when he went to the site the company told him that an amount would be taken from the monies owed to him and paid to another tiler to do the corrections. We note that the company has still not paid your husband.

The Ministry of Labour said that your husband can write a letter to his employer re the money owed. In the letter he should tell his employer that if he does not receive the money owed to him by a certain date, he intends to take the matter to court. Please tell your husband to keep a copy of the letter he writes to his employer.

If your husband is not paid, he can go to the Sutton Street court and tell the clerk of the courts that he wants to sue his employer for outstanding wages.

Lawsuits for up to $1,000,000 can be filed at the Sutton Street court.

Good luck.

Have a problem with a store, utility, a company? Telephone 936-9436 or write to: Tell Claudienne c/o Sunday Finance, Jamaica Observer, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5; or e-mail: edwardsc@jamaicaobserver.com. Please include a contact phone number.