Moving from self employed contractor to full time employee

wnoktnwbr

Hi, I'm looking for some general information and advice.

Since October 2010 I've been a self employed contractor for an individual company based overseas, as of this month they have a presence in England and have offered to employ me as a full time employee, this means that I get private health insurance, pension etc etc etc.

With my contracting I have a contract that stipulates my payment amount (based on performance) and the length of the contracting (end matches with becoming an employee) however I've never had a job before so I have a few questions relating to the change. So far I know that I will be paid monthly and I know the amount.

My questions:

1. Can a company decide to change my salary at any time and what notice must be given?

2. Are there rules regarding the amount of time taken to pay, must a company pay within a certain time?

3. How do I verify that the company is paying the correct tax on my wages? I assume that it is my responsibility to make sure that they are.

4. If a company wishes to terminate my employment what notice must be given.

I will probably have some more questions but for now these are the ones I am most interested in.

agrinnall

1) assuming you really mean can they cut it, well, yes, they can, and it has been happening during the recession. It's normally done after consultation, particularly if employees have union representation in the workplace. It could be considered a breach of contract allowing you to leave without working your notice period, others will probably have a better legal view of this.
2) Payment of wages should take place according to your contract of employment - note that this may be in a company handbook rather than in something specific to you.
3) If your pay is relatively straightforward then put the figures into The Salary Calculator to get a fair idea of what the right amounts of Tax and NI should be. The most important thing is to ensure that your tax code is correct from HMRC and applied correctly by your employer.
4) Either statutory notice as shown here or whatever is specified in your contract if that is greater.

KiKi

I don't know the answer to the question I'm about to pose, but I'm posing it for those who can. Would you be considered an employee under UK employment law, or under their country's employment laws? I don't know how it works, but that may influence the answers to your questions.

KiKi

wnoktnwbr

Thanks for the info agrinnall!

KiKi wrote: »

I don't know the answer to the question I'm about to pose, but I'm posing it for those who can. Would you be considered an employee under UK employment law, or under their country's employment laws? I don't know how it works, but that may influence the answers to your questions.

KiKi

They've created a UK limited company (and opened an office) I was a contractor while they had no business presence here.

zzzLazyDaisy

wnoktnwbr wrote: »

1. Can a company decide to change my salary at any time and what notice must be given?

They can, and it happens, especially in the current economic climate, but even so it is not a common occurance. You have presumably worked for the company for some time and have an idea how they operate, so you have to form a judgement.

2. Are there rules regarding the amount of time taken to pay, must a company pay within a certain time?

You say you will be paid monthly. This means that you will receive a payment into your designated bank account on a given date each month (you'll need to check the contract or employee handbook for details, but it is an easy question for their HR to answer)

3. How do I verify that the company is paying the correct tax on my wages? I assume that it is my responsibility to make sure that they are.

If you are an employee, it is the employer's duty to deduct tax under PAYE before paying your net wages. If they do not deduct the right amount of PAYE the liability rests with the employer. However, if you have payments in kind, such as a company car, this will be declared on your P11D at the end of the financial year, and this could result in a demand for payment of tax at the year end - or an alteration to your tax code.

4. If a company wishes to terminate my employment what notice must be given.

The statutory notice period is one week's notice for each year of employment up to a maximum of 12 weeks. However the employment contract can over-ride this, so it might state one month's notice or even three months' notice (however the contract cannot reduce your statutory rights, so even with one month's notice period, at five years' service you will still be entitled to 5 weeks' notice). HR will be able to give you this info

I will probably have some more questions but for now these are the ones I am most interested in.

One other question that you haven't asked is, 'what about employment protection' - at the moment, once you have 12 months' service the employer must have a fair reason to dismiss you and must follow fair procedures (this is an additional layer of protection over and above your basic notice period). The proposal is that from April this will to rise to two years, but at the moment there is no clear confirmation when/or if this will happen.

Hope this helps

D

paddedjohn

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

One other question that you haven't asked is, 'what about employment protection' - at the moment, once you have 12 months' service the employer must have a fair reason to dismiss you and must follow fair procedures (this is an additional layer of protection over and above your basic notice period). The proposal is that from April this will to rise to two years, but at the moment there is no clear confirmation when/or if this will happen.

Hope this helps

D

I believe that this will not be applied retrospecively, ie, will apply for anyone employed from April 2012 so if the OP starts before then they will have protection after 12 months.

agrinnall

PJ, I think you're missing a not from your post aren't you (i.e. ...will not be applied retrospectively...?

zzzLazyDaisy

paddedjohn wrote: »

if the OP starts before then they will have protection after 12 months.

No, that is not the case. If/when the new rules come in, they will apply to everyone.

The proposal is to change the eligibility requirements for making a claim to an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal from one year to two years. From the date the change comes in, employment tribunals will only accept new claims from employees with two or more years' service. This means that even if yesterday the person had statutory rights under the one year rule, they will lose them under the new two year rule.

I suspect that the normal 'non-retrospective' rule will apply to claimants already in the system (although this has not been confirmed as far as I know). So anyone unfairly dismissed over the next few weeks should lodge their claim as soon as possible, rather than waiting to the end of the three month deadline.

Uncertain

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

One other question that you haven't asked is, 'what about employment protection' - at the moment, once you have 12 months' service the employer must have a fair reason to dismiss you and must follow fair procedures (this is an additional layer of protection over and above your basic notice period). The proposal is that from April this will to rise to two years, but at the moment there is no clear confirmation when/or if this will happen.

Hope this helps

D

This may be one of those situations where the OP can negotiate a degree of contractual protection from day one. He is know to the company having been working for them (on a SE basis) for some time so it is not as if they are taking on an unknown just on the basis of an interview.

He may be able to argue that this time should count as continuous employment or that the firm should agree a minimum length of employment and / or a substantial notice period.

Obviously this depends on the strength of his bargaining position......

agrinnall

Jarndyce posted a thread about this yesterday saying that there won't be any retrospective application.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3739829

zzzLazyDaisy

agrinnall wrote: »

Jarndyce posted a thread about this yesterday saying that there won't be any retrospective application.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3739829

Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

I share SarEl's cynicism about this move, but time will tell....