You want your pay packet? That'll cost you a £42.95 deduction from your wages
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I’ve routinely covered the curse of so-called umbrella working.
It can afflict anyone who’s self-employed in a range of trades from building to teaching and involves a string of firms from recruitment agencies to payroll outfits taking a cut of your wages.
This latest case, however, is something else.
I’ve seen payslips dating from March and April for a subcontractor with the construction giant Munnelly Group plc , which boasts of working on “the most prestigious projects that the UK has to offer”, including HS2 and Heathrow Terminal 5.
Managing director Phil Munnelly, 62, says they’re aiming for a £120million turnover.
The payslips passed to the Mirror show that the subcontractor got his wages through a different company, called Bishopsgate.
Each week it took a cut of £42.95 for what was described as “company margin”, and another £2.50 for insurance.
But who is Bishopsgate? The payslip doesn’t give any company details.
The website BishopsgatePay.co.uk is strangely silent on its “about us” page as well as the “contact us” page. But click on the privacy policy and you’ll discover this: “Reference to ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘subsidiary’, ‘Group’, ‘our’ and/or ‘Munnelly’ is a reference to the Munnelly Group plc and its subsidiaries.”
(Image: Google streetview)
Indeed, the companies share the same office address in Harrow, north London, and Phil Munnelly was a director of both Munnelly Group and Bishopsgate Business Solutions until resigning from the latter at the end of last month, and remains a director of Bishopsgate Contracting Solutions.
None of them have replied to my emails, but Unite , Britain’s biggest union, was happy to do so.
“This is a new low for the construction industry,” said national officer for construction Jerry Swain.
“Not only are Munnelly requiring workers to operate on low pay rates but they then take a further slice of their wages through paying them via Bishopgate, which is their own company.
“This is all about boosting the profits of cynical employers, who divest themselves of any responsibility for the workers they are actually employing.”