No pension during probationary period?

Keldin

Just been told that the company doesn't contribute to a pension plan for me until after my 6 month probationary period ends. :mad:
It's in the legalese of my employment contract but during my 4 interviews for the job when i asked about pensions no mention was made of only after 6 months. 6 months worth of company contributions is almost £3000 so I don't want to just forget about it.

Also in the relevant section of the contract it says:

Commencing on the date on which your probationary period under clause 17 ends, the Company will contribute to the pension plan an annual amount equal to 8% of your annual salary payable for the year in question.

Now I take that to mean they will contribute and annual amount so how can they exclude 6 months from that?

Anyone have any advice on whether I'm interpreting this right or wrong?

Thanks
K

dunstonh

It is normal for occupational pensions not to start in the first 12 months.

I interpret what you have said as the joining date being 6 months after and from that point on you get the 8%.

Keldin

In the last 4 companies I worked at all had probationary periods and all contributed to my pension from the start. I would say it's normal to consider me an employee from the start and contribute accordingly.

What irks me the most is that when I asked about pensions they simply said teh company contributes 8% a month nothing said about after 6 months only.

K

windym_2

I would say the 8% per annum would be pro rata.

Debt_Free_Chick

Keldin wrote:

Also in the relevant section of the contract it says:

Commencing on the date on which your probationary period under clause 17 ends, the Company will contribute to the pension plan an annual amount equal to 8% of your annual salary payable for the year in question.

I agree with everything that's been said so far, but this statement is - at best - ambiguous!

I agree that it could be interpreted as the salary you received for the year in question ... so you might expect the Company to pay 8% of what you earn this year ... but that they will only start to pay it once the probationary period has ended. So, assuming you start on 1 January, your probationary period ends on 30 June and from July a total of 8% of this year's salary will be paid to the pension plan - essentially, double contributions paid from July-December!

I would have preferred to have seen a statement like ....

"Commencing on the date on which your probationary period under clause 17 ends, the Company will contribute to the pension plan an amount equal to 8% of your annual salary payable for the year in question, but that no contributions shall be payable in respect of the probationary period itself."

Or

"Commencing on the date on which your probationary period under clause 17 ends, the Company will contribute to the pension plan an amount equal to 8% of your annual salary, each month."

This part .... "the Company will contribute to the pension plan an annual amount " implies that the total which the company will contribute this year is 8% of this year's annual salary. For this reason, my preferred wording, in each case, omits reference to "an annual amount" and simply states "an amount".

Very unclear! It's worth asking them - would be interested in their explanation.

cheggers

Keldin wrote:

Just been told that the company doesn't contribute to a pension plan for me until after my 6 month probationary period ends. :mad:
It's in the legalese of my employment contract but during my 4 interviews for the job when i asked about pensions no mention was made of only after 6 months. 6 months worth of company contributions is almost £3000 so I don't want to just forget about it.

Also in the relevant section of the contract it says:

Commencing on the date on which your probationary period under clause 17 ends, the Company will contribute to the pension plan an annual amount equal to 8% of your annual salary payable for the year in question.

Now I take that to mean they will contribute and annual amount so how can they exclude 6 months from that?

Anyone have any advice on whether I'm interpreting this right or wrong?

Thanks
K

Are you on £75K? If you are you can afford to miss out on 6 months pension surely?

Keldin

cheggers wrote:

Are you on £75K? If you are you can afford to miss out on 6 months pension surely?

Oh silly me I'm earning enough money. What was I thinking. So you'll be giving away 4% of your annual gross income then. Would you like me to suggest some charities or will you just be giving it back to your employer.

Anyone else want to give back some of their pension to their employer? Anyone? Show of hands?

Nope just looks like you then.

K

dunstonh

So you'll be giving away 4% of your annual gross income then.

Not if you werent entitled to it in the first place.

Keldin

Thats the point of my posting. Everything discussed at all my interviews and subsequent meetings pointed to getting 8% pension contributions from the company as long as made a 3% contribution. Now when I try and get this set up it turns out that they don't include what I earn during my probabtion period.
1st point is that even though I read all 40 pages of my employment contract I either didn't see the bit I posted or didn't realise the consequences. Fair enough I fell for some fine print and I've expressed my feelings on that to my employer.
2nd point is that the clause is vague enough that even if you do pick up on it before signing it could mean they will make contributions for the whole years salary but only contribute it after you've passed your probation.
So I feel they let me believe I was getting the full contribution and don't want to take it lying down (I also would not liek to get fired over it either).

K

penrhyn

In the first 12 months of your employment you can be dismissed without any reason being given, so you might want to bide your time before making a fuss about 6 months pension contributions.
You could always take the matter up with your union if you have one.

Keldin

penrhyn wrote:

You could always take the matter up with your union if you have one.

I would if I had one. Probably get fired if I did have a union :-)

Could I come back to the pension issue after the 6 months probabtion or would letting it lie that long go against me?

K