Too good to be true?

reds2501

My wife has been working for a company under a casual contract for 7 years. The contract states that she is on zero hours (as most casual contracts are) and she only gets paid what she works. Recently she has seen her "regular" days and hours reduced to zero and took this up with the company's HR department. There quickly followed a meeting with the area manager who in no uncertain terms said that they want her back on board and that she can tell them the hours that she wants work, the days she wants to work and she will be paid for holiday periods and will only have to work in term times.

However, for the past seven years she has been paid at a lower pay rate than the role she has been working in (her contract was for a certain job but she has been working in another role that was on a different pay scale). She has been underpaid by about £1 per hour for this length of time and my (cynical) train of thought is that they (her employer) have got themselves into a bit of a pickle by doing this.

Any ideas if what they have been doing is legal or are they trying to avoid a breach of contract discussion?

Thanks in advance for any help

hcb42

if her contract is on a certain pay scale and that is what she was paid, i fail to see a problem?

How come she ended up doing a different job and why not bring it to someones attention re pay longer ago?

reds2501

Blooming heck, that was quick

The biggest problem that we have is that we weren't really aware of the issue until recently (when her hours were completely cut). The pay issue didn't rear it's ugly head until we discussed pay rates with one of her collegues who did the same job as my wife.

The long and the short of it is that she was employed on contract A at payscale A but she has been doing job B (which is on a higher pay band) at band A wages.

I can appreciate that there are no guarantees as a casually contracted worker but she had been working the same days and same hours for 7 years then to suddenly stop and then have this offer on the table got my hackles up a wee bit.

hcb42

I am on fire today

On the table now, are they offering her what she wants on band a or band b? If A, this is her opportunity to get things put right for the future, while she has the strong bargaining position.

reds2501

If she chooses band A job, she will be paid band A and if she chooses band B job, she will be band B which is all fine and dandy and we have no problems at all with this. My bone of contention is that for 7 years she been underpaid and mis-employed and her company have realised this and are trying to mitigate any potential problems i.e. solicitors and the like. Even her area manager said that this offer of hours, days and holidays is a one off just for her in the entire company (a rather large multinational).

anamenottaken

reds2501 wrote: »

If she chooses band A job, she will be paid band A and if she chooses band B job, she will be band B which is all fine and dandy and we have no problems at all with this. My bone of contention is that for 7 years she been underpaid and mis-employed and her company have realised this and are trying to mitigate any potential problems i.e. solicitors and the like. Even her area manager said that this offer of hours, days and holidays is a one off just for her in the entire company (a rather large multinational).

They would have nothing to fear. She could have been paid anything they offered (as long as it was at least NMW) and there would be no legal case to be brought against them for the seven years.

Your wife should simply accept whichever she wants.

Sambucus_Nigra

Did the amount being paid on her contract equal the amount being paid in her wages [minus tax NI etc]?

Evilm

Doing the job B doesn't mean that she needs to be paid Job B's rate of pay unless it states so in her contract. They could claim she was acting up to Job B. They could claim she was doing Job B for Job A pay. I can't see any actionable issue here. Possible negotiating room maybe but I wouldn't expect to get far personally.

And being a casual is just that - she has no right to expect to keep those hours just because. It might get your back up but they haven't done anything wrong.