HELP! Minimum wage problem?

dorme

Hi all!:beer:

My partner has been employed by a call centre for a year now, and earns commision on certain bookings she makes.

Now the basic wage they are paying (before commision) is £3.70 an hour (shocking i know), now usually she takes home alot more than this (around 25k a year) due to the amount of bookings she makes and commision as a result.

She is due to go on maternity leave soon, of which the last 6 months the employer are going to pay the basic £3.70 per hour rate - isnt this illegal?

Also, when she goes back to work, she will be doing alot less hours, so if she earns less than minimum wage altogether (commision and £3.70 an hour) , is that illegal also? would she not be entitled to earn at least the minimum wage hourly amount?

sorry for the essay!

Any help would be great.

CIS

What does the contract say ?

Contractual maternity pay can be whatever the employer wants to set it as but if its less than SMP you can claim the difference.

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CB4QFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hmrc.gov.uk%2Fhelpsheets%2Fe15.pdf&rct=j&q=contractual%20maternity%20pay&ei=_Py-TdXMNMKZ8QOvzZW8BQ&usg=AFQjCNFXsOU0HByUtlqTyFnEHMtMzs-MKQ&sig2=FHTdOFF8BEAgmTozbVEhNA&cad=rja

page 13 of the PDF - 'Offsetting SMP against employee’s pay'


When she return to work she must receive the minimum of the minimum wage for the hrs worked.

Googlewhacker

dorme wrote: »

Hi all!:beer:

My partner has been employed by a call centre for a year now, and earns commision on certain bookings she makes.

Now the basic wage they are paying (before commision) is £3.70 an hour (shocking i know), now usually she takes home alot more than this (around 25k a year) due to the amount of bookings she makes and commision as a result.

She is due to go on maternity leave soon, of which the last 6 months the employer are going to pay the basic £3.70 per hour rate - isnt this illegal? I'm guessing but as long as it is over SMP then no it would not be illegal as it is not an hourly rate, it would be X hours x £3.70 and thus a weekly rate

Also, when she goes back to work, she will be doing alot less hours The employer has to agree to this first, she cannot demand it, so if she earns less than minimum wage altogether (commision and £3.70 an hour) , is that illegal also? Yes this would be, however if at full time she is earning £25k then pro rata half hours half wage she should be easily ok would she not be entitled to earn at least the minimum wage hourly amount?

sorry for the essay!

Any help would be great.

See above.

rrah7827

A good start would be looking to see what is written into her contract of employment.

t0rt0ise

The law overrides a contract of employment so look at both the contract and the law. Lots on the web from the gov.uk website.

corbyboy

The first six weeks of maternity pay is paid at 90% of your avergae earnings over the last 8 weeks. Any sick pay, overtime payments and bonuses are included in the calculation.

Saying that they pay £3.70 an hour is irrelevant for SMP purposes as you don't get paid hourly while on SMP.

It seems her employer might have to pony up a bit more cash than they were expecting to.