Retrospective backpay after leaving company?

Shambler

Hi, some advice please, I plan on handing in my notice soon as I have been offered another job.

We usually have a pay rise around September but this year it was postponed because there were a lot of redundancies going on in the company and it was considered poor taste to talk about peoples pay rises.

Pay rises will be discussed next year after I have left in January.

My question is, will I be legally entitled to the backpay I would have received for the last 3 months of this year or will I have to forfeit it?

pimento

No. This happened at our place and the guy was told to jog on.

getmore4less

If I were the company I would have said

Pay review in Sept result Zero for all.
redundancies
Next review XXXX. and next sept as usual.

Any contractual rises like increments on scales should have happened.(review is not the same as rise)

tizerbelle

Short answer, No!

If your contract guarantees a pay rise (rather than a pay review) every year on a specific date, you may have a shot but it would be one dumb employer that would put a written guarantee for a pay rise in a contract.

As previous poster said, pay reviews are not pay awards, it just means the employer will think, do we give them a pay award? Their answer could well be no.

In our place if you are leaving in the month that you would get a pay award (whether cost of living or annual increment) then you don't get paid it in your last salary as our contracts state that they are given at the employers discretion and in these cases the employers discretion is I'm not paying you extra when you are leaving us.

KiKi

I think this partly depends on whether or not they are actually backdating payrises for all employees, and whether or not this is a yearly incremental review, or a performance related payrise.

I left my old company 6 days after the incremental review was due in April, but due to TU negotiations it wasn't implemented until September. It was backdated for everyone, so I received an additional payslip in October with the tiny amount of backpay I was due. This is the general annual rise for everyone, regardless of grade. So if they are talking about it in January - but backdating the actual pay - then I would write to them and ask.

If it's not being backdated then no, and you shouldn't be entitled to it, either as no other employees are.

However, if it's a performance related payrise, and individual to each person (rather than giving everyone 3% across the board etc), then I wouldn't even ask, as they're not going to be discussing you because you're not there!

HTH
KiKi

MrsManda

As Kiki said, it depends on whether your company has moved the incremental pay rise until a later date, or they've just put off the discussions and will backdate any pay rise once decided to September.

If it's the first then you won't be entitled as you'll have left. If it's the latter, you should get the back dated pay for the time you worked between the payrise start date and the date you left.

I've received payments from pay increase decisions made after I've left a company though I didn't expect either of them so was a nice bonus

treetrunks

Will everyone else receive backpay?

GavB79

I think you have a cheek asking for it tbh. If you want a pay rise, stay with the company! Even if you were entitled, you should waive it as compensation for them having to advertise and recruit your replacement!

Shambler

MrsManda wrote: »

As Kiki said, it depends on whether your company has moved the incremental pay rise until a later date, or they've just put off the discussions and will backdate any pay rise once decided to September.

If it's the first then you won't be entitled as you'll have left. If it's the latter, you should get the back dated pay for the time you worked between the payrise start date and the date you left.

I've received payments from pay increase decisions made after I've left a company though I didn't expect either of them so was a nice bonus

It is the latter so I would assume that I would receive the backdated pay since I have worked the time and it was not my decision to postpone it.

We get a payrise every year around September as a rule.

KiKi

GavB79 wrote: »

Even if you were entitled, you should waive it as compensation for them having to advertise and recruit your replacement!

What a ridiculous comment. Employees leave companies all the time and employers have to recruit their replacements. It is not the employee's responsibility to bear the cost, and I'm sure you're not suggesting that all employees pay for their replacement's recruitment.

If an incremental payrise is backdated, then it's effectively being applied from a certain date. If an employee worked on or from that date, then I don't see how it's cheeky to ask for pay that all other employees are getting.

KiKi

Bobl

If it is a contractual pay rise I don't see how they could postpone it, unless you all agreed to it and have it in writing that they will honour it later. It therefore looks like it is a discretionary pay rise, in which case you would not be entitled to back pay.

What does your contract actually say?