Not sure where to post this, but thought I would start here:
At the end of 2007, my wife was approached by two former bosses from a previous company. They had started a new US-based company and had just purchased a company in the UK and were offering her the position of Managing Director. These guys were, for all practical purposes, trusted friends. My wife accepted the job and by April 2008 we were moved to the UK. We made some mistakes, though, and my wife was never given a contract. It was promised repeatedly but everytime it was asked for it never came. We have very little in writing but a lot was promised -- including stock options in the company. The reasoning for why they couldn't give us a contract was because they were replacing the current MD at the UK company -- and my understanding is that there is UK law that prevents having a replacement employee already when you get rid someone -- so they legally couldn't put my wife's role in writing.
So, they paid our moving expenses, for our initial flights, and that is all.
Fast-forward to present day: the two guys who offered the job have become very aggressive and confrontational with my wife. They have accused her of lying, of not working hard enough (she works 16+ hours per day -- trust me I know!), and various other offences.
In the meantime, they are shutting down the UK site and moving the company assets to another recent EU acquisition. This will happen within in the next 2 months. We were told that my wife was moving to the new company in the position of Sales Manager -- but we have reason not to believe them.
As the process of moving to the new country progressed, we found that the work and residence permit application required a fairly specific contract from my wife's employer. My wife pushed to get the contract and now the company has flat out refused to provide it, saying that she can commute from the UK and that a sales manager can work anywhere. Her company also became very confrontational when they saw the estimates for what it would cost to move us to the new country: moving, visa fees, relocation assistance (non-English speaking country), etc. The estimates were based on real quotes and weren't inflated at all.
We believe that they are stalling because their intent is to have my wife see them through the transition to the new company and then they will dismiss her. With nothing in writing, we fear that they may just leave us to fend for ourselves for moving expenses and other related costs to simply return home to the USA. We have so many questions that we don't know where to begin. We've sought counsel from a solicitor already and his appraisal of the situation wasn't very comforting but his approach was UK Employment law and utilizing tribunal to seek a small amount of compensation.
So, if anyone has any advice or even where to look for advice, please let me know. We really feel quite lost. A legal service suggested we should simply file a grievance with the company regarding the lack of contract and other issues. We hesitate to do that since we know what the reaction would be: increased hosility and likely counter-legal action. We have thought that we could attempt to make a deal with the company: offer to see them through the transition period with a written guarantee that they pay our way home -- another gamble since we have to be ready to walk away with nothing.
Does anyone know if paying for the move over has any precedent, legally, for paying the return trip home? The argument could be made that my wife was enticed into the current position overseas and then hung out to dry.
Any other ideas? Suggestions?
Thanks!
