Is this Moving goalposts to below minimum wage?

funnyguy

My firm pays £7 an hour for a part time Display job where I travel from store to store.At the end of the day I download my results to them on the computor[takes 5 minutes a job].They are now saying that as an reward they will pay an extra £2 if you download the results on the same day[which most people do] ,but have reduced the pay to £5 an hour.Is that within the law regarding minimum wage?

Hammyman

I don't follow. Are they saying they are reducing the amount for just this one hour or for every hour you work?

kingfisherblue

If I have understood correctly, your firm is proposing to pay £5 an hour, and if you download the results on the same day, the hourly rate for that job will increase to £7 an hour. Is that correct? If it is, assuming workers are over 21 years old, this is paying below minimum wage for those who do not download results the same day. This does not sound to me as though it is lawful - what if the computer crashes, you have a power cut, or have some other genuine reason for not downloading that day? You would only be paid £5 an hour for that job, therefore below minimum wage.

That's if I have understood correctly....

Naf

Might come under 'unfair deductions' to your wages.
Effectively your pay for the job is still £7 per hour, but they're deducting £2 if you don't do it fast enough.
There might, however, be an argument to claim that you're not doing your job the way they ask if you don't do it same day, and so they are not obliged to pay you anything? Depends on the firm/type of work. I know it can work like this for mystery shopping assignments...

Judith_W

I'm surprised they've not just said that you now must upload your data on the same day to keep the wage, and yes, if there are circumstances where anyone is being paid £5 when they are 21 and over this is in breach of NMW and they should top up to £5.93

getmore4less

You may need to identify what worker class you are, hourly, piece work of unmeasured worker.

What time are you actualy paid for time in store, travel between store, pickup drop off at main depot of display items etc.

any other payments eg car allowances etc.

I would just throw back you can't do this due to NMW laws and let them come back with their justification.

agrinnall

It's not a very nice trick to play but I'm doubtful whether this would actually take you below NMW unless you regularly don't download the data on the same day. If you miss one day a week then your pay will be £5 per hour for that day and £7 per hour for other 4 days so overall for the week you will still be above NMW (assuming that your 'pay refererence period' is a week - see here for how NMW is calculated). If you don't do the download 3 or more times each week then you probably would go below NMW but your employer may then be able to argue that you aren't doing the job properly anyway.