Labour councillors' law firm paid worker below minimum wage

[dutchman]

A law firm owned by two leading Coventry councillors has been taken to a tribunal over claims it paid a worker below the statutory minimum wage at just £20 a day.

It is despite council deputy leader Phil Townshend and fellow Labour cabinet member Abdul Khan voting for a key Labour council priority to 'tackle poverty' by raising the minimum wage for council workers.

In May last year Coun Townshend became deputy under new council leader Ann Lucas whose key manifesto pledge was to raise the salaries of the poorest paid council workers above the national minimum wage.

Labour council leaders claimed the measure would set an example to other employers, and urged other firms to pay workers the Living Wage.

Documents lodged at Companies House show Couns Townshend and Khan are the only partners at The Law Partnership Solicitors LLP, which moved its registered office in September from High Street, Coleshill, to Foleshill Road, Coventry.

A preliminary tribunal hearing in Birmingham on October 30 heard how Aaron Matthews was employed as a litigation assistant on £20 a day at the Coleshill office following an oral agreement about his employment terms between 2012 and this year.

It is claimed the law firm agreed to pay him £4,000 in back payments after the tribunal ruled he had been legally entitled to the statutory national minimum wage.

Mr Matthews, said to be unqualified, claimed he was owed £9,995 in unpaid wages. The tribunal was told his hourly pay was only £2.67 an hour.

Asked by the Coventry Observer this week if the case had been settled, Coun Townshend said only: "There is a confidentiality clause in the agreement under a tribunal order which I do not wish to break."

Coun Townshend went into practice with his fellow councillor Khan two years ago following the insolvency of his former Coventry-based law firm, Townshends LLP, which had owed £339,000 to HM Revenue and Customs at the time.

Some parts of the business were moved to Coun Khan's Law Partnership Solicitors firm. Townshends LLP entered liquidation in January last year.

Coun Townshend represented his own firm at the Aaron Mathews tribunal hearing and raised a legal technicality concerning Mr Matthews' claims.

Judge David Goodier told the tribunal he had to decide whether Matthews had been an employee or a worker in ruling whether the assistant's claim could go to a full tribunal hearing.

The judge ruled Mr Matthews - who sometimes 'grumbled' about his low pay for junior clerical tasks - had been a 'worker' and had therefore been entitled in law to the national minimum wage.

Coun Townshend and barrister Russell Holland, who represented Matthews, agreed to the judge's suggestion of a brief adjournment for the two sides to discuss wehther an agreement could be reached.

Mr Holland later announced the law firm had agreed to pay Matthews £4,000 before November 27, and would later decide whether to pay the rest, once 'certain calculations' were made.

A third partner in the Law Partnership Solicitors, Gary Glover, left the company in September last year.

[rebbonk]

Hypocrisy knows no bounds.

[dutchman]

Deputy council leader fined and rebuked over law firm's £39,000 client account shortage



The deputy leader of Coventry City Council has been rebuked and fined after an investigation uncovered a £39,441 shortage of funds on the client account of the law firm where he is a partner.

Coun Abdul Khan has been punished by the Solicitors Regulation Authority after accounting discrepancies were identified at his company Law Partnership Solicitors between May 2012 and August 2015.

The problems at the firm occurred when former council deputy leader Coun Phil Townshend was also a partner - but an SRA investigation into his conduct ended when he died in October 2015.

The SRA ruling read: “Whilst a member of The Law Partnership Solicitors LLP at a branch office at 452 Foleshill Road , Coventry, Mr Khan was found to have allowed a shortage of £39,441.53 to occur on the firm’s client account; failed to ensure compliance with the SRA Accounts Rules 2011; and failed to inform the SRA that cheques drawn from the office account between May 2012 and August 2015 were not presented for payment.

“If they had been presented, there would not have been sufficient funds held in the office account to honour those cheques.

“Mr Khan remedied all of the breaches.”

It added: “A written rebuke was issued against Mr Khan. He was directed to pay costs of £600.”

When questioned by the Telegraph, Coun Khan sought to distance himself from the problems at the firm and insisted Coun Townshend had ran the practice’s finances from a separate office in Coleshill.

He also insisted the breaches were accounting issues and no money had ever been taken out of the firm’s client accounts by Coun Townshend or any other member of staff. This was also confirmed by the SRA.

Coun Khan said: “There was a technical breach. There is no question that any money has been dishonestly taken.

“Phil was the head of finance. He was the compliance officer for the firm, he dealt with all accounting matters.

“I accepted responsibility on the basis that I was a partner in the law firm. But the accounts were dealt with primarily from Coleshill. I was based in Coventry and not really involved in the financial management.”

He added: “They were issues to do with reconciliation. When clients put money into a client account, that is allocated to a ledger for them.

“Sometimes clients put money in without a reference number. If that happens it’s put in a suspension ledger until we find out who it is meant to be allocated to.

“There’s no suggestion anything dishonest has occurred. Phil did not take any money he was not entitled to.

“We have taken action to make sure everything is in order.”

[rebbonk]

As he knows full well, his defence is rubbish. All partners involved are held jointly liable!