40% pay cut

Ewarwoowar2

SomeBozo wrote: »

Basically an employer can offer a pay cut instead of making staff redundant. Its a bad decision all round, but most staff would rather earn 60% of something than 100% of nothing. There is nothing illegal with suggesting or foricing the issue. Of course it can't be done on a whim or every employer would do it, but to suggest (as the article does) that its "illegal" is such bad advice to the point of taking the employee straight to the job centre.

Forcing a pay cut on an employee, without their consent, is a fundamental breach of contract. Therefore, unlawful.

HTH

Ewarwoowar2

ceridwen

Well - the breach of contract idea is certainly worth investigating.

withabix

mattyj0 wrote: »

and if we did refuse surely by law he has no choice but to make us redundant thus I would get 15 weeks pay of full pay?

Where have you got that from? Is 15 weeks pay in your contract (or some service-related calculation)?

mattyj0

15 weeks full pay would come from 15 years service.
Would the fact that other employees are not being asked to take a paycut ie management/office staff/workshop staff be legal though?
Only us outside engineers are being asked to take this paycut not anyone else.

LittleVoice

mattyj0 wrote: »

15 weeks full pay would come from 15 years service.

Is that contractual (ie included in your written particulars of employment)?

mattyj0

no but its the law isn't it? 1x weeks pay for every year of service if made redundant. payment upto a maximum of £330 per week

prudence41

mattyj0 wrote: »

would I be right in thinking that by forcing us to either accept the paycut or he will force us to resign there would be a case of construtive dismissal?
and if we did refuse surely by law he has no choice but to make us redundant thus I would get 15 weeks pay of full pay?

There's lots of conflicting advice on your post and the only definitive answer will come from an employment lawyer. I work in HR and I can tell you that an employer can REQUEST a change in your contract which you can refuse to accept. With notice, the employer can enact the change and you can either accept or raise a grievance which may lead to your dismissal or resignation on the basis of constructive dismissal. Your recourse will then have to be through the Employment Tribunal for unfair dismissal. DO TAKE PROFESSIONAL ADVICE BEFORE YOU TAKE THIS COURSE OF ACTION.

On the point of redundancy, if the job is still there, you would not be entitled to redundancy, only your contractual rights on dismissal. And if your employer offers redundancy, the amount he would pay would depend on your salary, what's written in your company policy and contract of employment. IF (and its a big if) you become eligible for redundancy, this is the statutory calculator on which your minimum entitlement will be determined.
http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/employment/employment-legislation/employment-guidance/page33157.html

Get some independent advice and best of luck in what is a difficult situation.

ceridwen

Good post above Prudence.

I noted the bit about "the only definitive answer will come from an employment lawyer".....guess that means we ARE all waiting for caselaw to be established on this then?? Oh well - lets hope it never happens to me - or I would BE the case law precedent set...:cool:

So - I guess we now still need clarification as to what would happen to someone's benefit if they were dismissed for refusing to accept a paycut. Anyone here working for the D.W.P. that could tell us whether the DWP would take the fair viewpoint (ie that the claimant shouldnt be penalised for being sacked - as it was none of their doing/they havent left their job voluntarily) or whether there might be a disqualification period before all due benefit started being paid (this is obviously hugely important to those without children - as we wouldnt get any income at all until benefit started being paid)?

So - I guess the advice here for everyone is to make sure that you belong to your relevant Union - you wouldnt be able to risk having to cover legal costs yourself to fight such a case.

I've got double "protection" in case I need it - my household insurance policy covers legal claims against employers (should I ever need to bring one). Think that bit of my policy is only about £15 per year - well worth it for the added peace of mind.

Jo_R_2

Sorry can I just clarify as am quite confused (!) - can an employer put forward a pay cut such as suggested, whilst keeping to the contracted hours, eg proposing a 40% pay cut yet saying employees must continue to work 40 hours?

Reds-on-Sea

I take it that paycuts can only go down as far as minimum wage?